Clash of the Elements Part 4 EX Story 2: Twinsanity
by mewmaster93
Summary: The next step in Alex and Shina's journey to find the Cosmos Drive takes them to the N. Sanity Islands. This time their mission intertwines with Crash Bandicoot's attempts to stop a pair of reality-warping birds known as the Evil Twins. But when those nutty birds set their sights on our heroes they will have to try their hardest to bypass their shenanigans to accomplish their goal.
1. Chapter 1

" _Ah, it's a delight to see you again. How have you spent your time, dear friend?"_

"… _An odd question to ask? I suppose, yet again, from your perspective it is."_

" _It's always so hard to choose the proper words around you, even after two-thousand years"_

" _Alas, I know you are busy, I will not waste your time. Another chapter is unfolding soon enough, am I not wrong?"_

" _You already know where they shall be going, you've guided them well enough with this particular placement. How much fun do you plan on having though?"_

"… _Hahaha, I suppose it is impossible for you to make a comparison, you are correct. Then perhaps it'd be better to ask how far you plan to go."_

" _That far, not the same? I suppose escalation is always part of your game. Very well my friend, then go, enjoy yourself to your heart's content!"_

" _I-I beg your pardon? Why my dear, I do believe that was a laugh slipping out from between your rosy lips."_

" _Did my presumptuous attempt at giving you permission truly humor you so? A fair affair, I'd say au contraire. Let us start then, in the land of mutants and marsupials…"_

 **CLASH OF THE ELEMENTS PART 4 EX STORY 2:**

 **TWINSANITY**

 **Chapter 1: Adventures in the Land Down Under**

"Hmmmm…HMMMMM!"

"Hrggg…"

"Hmmm…HMMMM!"

In an air sphere speeding through the depths of space, a symphony of hums and grunts was played between it's two passengers, a girl by the name of Shina Aurora and a boy named Alex Whiter. At this moment he guided their ride with a miffed tapping of his foot in rhythm with the hums.

Shina, dressed in her fitting blue t-shirt and light beige pants, examined a curved stone with engravings familiar only to her. Her wrist pivoted as her face contorted in a forcibly bizarre way of expressing curiosity, and as she laid against her flowing golden locks her legs paddled as though in the presence of water.

Alex's expression grew tighter and tighter, slowly making his face resemble an angry prune until he released his emotions all at once "You've been at this non-stop! So…STOP!" Shina's body jerked up, meeting the daggers jolting from his eyes. With a tilt to the right she spun the stone on a finger and smiled.

"Ya expecting me to do anything else in here? If you just picked up a board game last planet…"

"Like, oh my god! I seem to have left my wallet one million light years back." Alex swung a hand beside himself while sounding feminine, then clamped his teeth hard enough to scare a tiger and exclaimed "Should I turn around to get it?!" With a quaking stamp and swerve, he went back to piloting.

Silence pervaded the sphere until Shina stood and tossed the stone up, the snap from it being clamped between her fingers making Alex's emotions exchange with a sigh as his head hung. With a short hop and glide over, Shina held the stone in front of Alex and her aura poured through it to create a foggy trail out into space.

As her arms rested on Alex's shoulders his skin stiffened, yet his innards melted from her jolly words "Look, look! We finally found the next planet!" She would never catch a glimpse of his pink cheeks as she backflipped and let out a holler of joy.

"I-It only took three months." He gasped as the tension became a distant memory, allowing him to focus on getting the sphere to the planet.

Shina pirouetted with the stone raised high and sang "We're one step closer to saving you sis~!" then with a graceful yet sudden stop she held the stone under her arm and thrust a finger forward.

"Onward, Cap-I-Tan!"

"Aye aye, rookie." Alex quipped with a shrewd brush of his head back. To his surprise, it only took three minutes to get close to the planet, but looking at it only perked his brows and got him murmuring "Hey wait a second…This isn't Earth, is it?"

"Blue seas, seven continents…If it's not Earth then I'm going to question my teacher when I get back." Shina observed with little fanfare. As Alex grumbled to himself "I'd question more than that…" and then followed the trail of aura to what appeared to be Australia's islands.

"Somehow, a second Earth is easy to swallow. But what will we find?" His intention for privacy was ruined with a sharp widening of his eyes as Shina spoke out "Well if we're going to Australia, I might have some ideas. Eeeeeee, this is so exciting!"

With squeals expected of one half her age, Shina clenched her fists against her chest and backed off. Alex's ear rung for a little and he retreated back into his usual grumpiness, muttering with a scowl "Great, this is happening again. Well, now that she has guidance maybe she'll not waste our time."

The aura magnetically drew the duo towards a small tropical island off the coast of Australia. It had a volcano in it's center and palm trees with leaves of various colors dotted across the gristly sand beaches. The rest of the island was covered in jungles too thick to observe from above. To Alex, there was an air of peace and tranquility that was foreign to him.

The sphere landed softly on the southern edge of the island, pushing up the sand in dusty rings and sending the native crabs scuttling to the navy blue seas. Alex let out a sigh as Shina somersaulted out of the fading sphere and landed with her arms swung up.

"Ahhh, warm air!" She arched back, and Alex found himself quite distracted by her ample breasts as she unwittingly thrust them forward. "Yep! I can just hear the acapella!" She said as she straightened up.

"W-Whadda what?" Alex babbled like the doofus he is and Shina spun around, standing on one leg with arms hung out "I mean duh, we're on N. Sanity Island! Circa Twinsanity judging by it's looks."

"Whatever" He replied sternly "We're not here for a vacation. Where's the trail lead us now?" he then brushed her off to look around.

His eyes focused on some bouncing green crates labeled 'Nitro' and suddenly an environmentalist was born of him as he thought _"This CAN'T be good for the area."_ A chicken runs right up to one of the crates, letting out his last cluck as a chain of explosions took out his kin in the area. Alex couldn't even enjoy being right and winced before looking at Shina, who was shaking the artifact like a rattle.

"Hey Alex, the trails gone cold." Shina shrugged aloofly. Alex blinked twice and then started to approach her with a suspecting "What do you mean 'cold'?"

"Frozen. Chilled. Icy. Freiz-" The stone was swiped from her as Alex bluntly said "I have no time for your synonyms, Shina. You can't tell me this isn't working" while looking at it.

"Oh well in that case it's definitely working!" Shina said with spunk bordering on the sarcastic, and with a glare over his shoulder Alex waved the stone lightly and said "Forget it. Why would this stupid thing just…stop?" Shina turned around and rubbed her chin, but expectedly she shrugged after.

"Grrrrrreeeeaaat…" Alex flicked the stone back to Shina's possession and he defaulted to his chest pressing armfold. With only a glance at her glistening eyes he could predict, unfortunately, what would happen next.

"Then it's time for another adventure!" With a perky hop she chirped and then giggled. Of course, mister party pooper himself stamped his foot down, saying after her abrupt gasp "Worry about finding information!"

"Keep ya pants on Alex! If we're on N. Sanity Island then there's a lot of people we can talk to!" Shina waved a hand around while Alex mustered up a puff of disbelief and replied "'People' in the broadest definition of the term. Well, whatever. Considering where we are…"

He looked around, gliding on by the tiki idols past the coastline until he peered into the luscious jungle, where he saw a nice stone hut with a red roof basking under the rays of the morning sun. Shina was already hopping innocently towards that hut, causing Alex to shake his head and then go after her. The sound of waves was slowly drowned by the chirping of birds, and with the air growing warmer the atmosphere got bathed in a light yellow hue thanks to the canopy filtering the sunlight through.

Unaware of the insanity he'd be dragged into, not as though he'd care, a bipedal orange furred marsupial wearing blue jeans and tennis shoes laid flat in the middle of the sunlight beaming down. His chest puffed like a balloon and deflated just as well with every breath, and with his arms stretched out he was truly engulfed in a feeling of relaxation.

"OHMIGOSH You're THE Crash Bandicoot!" Tragically, he was caught up in the cacophony of a fangirling squeal and his body jolted awake, fur standing on end as his green eyes bulged out momentarily. His gloved right arm was then grabbed and shaken furiously by Shina, who let out all her feelings in a single burst of glee "I' !…ImeanexceptCrashBoomBangbutnobodylikedthatone,ohmygoshyourfurissosoftupcloseandpersonalandIcan't-"

As Shina stroked his arm, Crash picked at his ear with whatever freedom he had. With a shrug and a goofy look on his face he flicked the wax away. His savior came with a rude reminder towards Shina in the form of a two-finger jab to the neck, and as she rubbed the spot she looked straight back into the bewildered eyes of her comrade.

"Really?!" He swung his arms out wide enough to hug a bear and continued on with the ferocity of one "I suggest finding info and you go to the brainless marsupial?! This isn't like Spyro, we'd be lucky to even get a snark out of the guy!"

"Aleeeeeeex, it's not nice to insult someone for their brain problems." Shina said in a lofty voice as a sort of scratching sound directed her towards Crash digging out a spare shoe from the ground with his teeth, and looking quite proud of it to 'boot'!

"…Look, it's not an insult when I say the floating plank living on this world would be more useful than him." Alex opened his eyes and lowered his arms, moving around Shina and making his way to do the door with a mutter of "Speaking of…"

He only had to pound it twice as it opened quickly. Backing off, his expression was apathetic to the appearance of the 'floating plank'. The wood had a perplexed frown on it's cracked yet bulbous wooden lips, and while his yellow eyes were pupil-less his thick brows matched his feelings to a tee. The four colored feathers on his top and green feather goatee gave this being a mythical vibe.

"What is all this commotion?" They spoke like a guru, calmer than the evening tide. When his eyes met the simple looking Alex, he let out a gasp to the boy's surprise. Then, the wood bowed gently and stated "Never, in all my years, did I think I'd get to see the successor of the revered Elemental Overlord."

"Uhhh…" Alex glanced aside and muttered "R-Right."

Shina ran up to the mask and held her hand out. He raised his brows, and after a blinking glance at her hand she quickly grabbed and wiggled the mask's goatee.

"A pleasure to meet ya Mr. Aku-Aku! My name is Shina Aurora!" She then nudged back and playfully said "Grumpy gus over there is Alex Whiter!"

"Real mature." Alex's disgruntled whisper was followed by the girl folding her arms back and saying "I'm just jivin'!" The boy shook his head as he approached and forced her arm holding the stone forward, looking the brow raised mask in the eyes with his expected seriousness.

"Aku, have you seen any stone like this around?" He tapped the stone a couple times as the mask floated over and hummed in thought. He pulled back and slowly shook.

"I'm afraid I have not. Is it fair to assume this is important to you both?" Aku smiled and listened in as Shina proclaimed "It's super duper important! We're looking for more pieces of this artifact so we can find the Cosmos Drive and save my sister!"

"Ah, a valiant effort if I do say so myself. Though if you don't mind me asking, young Overlord…Why are YOU here?"

" _I ask myself that more than I care to admit…"_ Alex rolled his eyes and with a careless glance he said "I'm the only way she can go between planets. Plus, you know…Elemental Overlord duties and all that."

"Well, I am pleased to inform you that our world has been at peace for a few years now. You have Crash to thank for that."

Alex looked back and saw Crash running towards the jungle, following what appeared to be a yellow-skinned man wearing a girlish blonde wig and slightly feminine clothes.

"Speaking of..." He pointed out, and Aku shifted his focus with a squint and comment of "How peculiar…Since when has Coco had a head that big?"

"Well thanks for your help Aku we'll search for it on our own bye!" Alex hastily tried to leave while dragging Shina by the arm, but she slipped free and with a gesture blocked the boy's way with a wall of aura. He turned around with a glare and said "Shina, we are NOT wasting time with this."

"Why not? Helping Crash is a good excuse to scour the island for the next piece." Shina shrugged and grinned. Hastily, Alex wiggled a finger at her and pointed out "Forgive me if I don't believe that. You were just squealing about adventure like a clique girl at the mall not too long ago."

"What an inapt comparison." Shina merrily spoke with a hand clenched before her smile, then she swung a pinky out from that same hand and said in a sing-song tone "Hows about I solemnly swear on a pinky promise to stay focused?"

"That's pretty kiddie." Alex bluntly said. With a sigh and a trembling hand he grit his teeth and raised a pinky up "B-But if it'll get us through this, then fine." The pinky promise was done with a energetic grip from Shina, and she almost pulled Alex from the ground as she moved back and clapped.

"Alright! Lets go catch up with Crash!" She pumped her fist and sprinted towards Aku as he was flying into the jungle. He stopped when the girl stood and pivoted in front of him with an offer "Hey Mr. Aku-Aku, you want some help with Crash?"

"I wouldn't want to be a burden." Said Aku humbly.

"Our goals coincide. Scratch your back and you scratch mine?"

The mask happily said "Very well. But be careful, I have a bad feeling about this…" and then stiffened his wooden body as the two went into the jungle. Alex was a sighing follower in all this, and during their trek through the jungle he cared not about the luscious sights and wildlife. Instead he tried to zero in on the next artifact.

" _Can't even sense the darn thing. If this island was a haystack, then I'm currently the needle hunter…"_ He brushed the ground with a kick as they entered a moist tunnel, a trail of unconscious animals in their wake.

" _Crash was here…"_ He then looked over at Shina as she appeared to be mid-conversation with Aku, her gaze not wandering as it should. A scowl cocked, Alex picked up the pace until he was inches behind the two, right in time for Shina to be snorting like a pig.

"S-So I guess you could say we 'CRASH' landed on this planet." Aku's low, genuine laughter was drowned by a bellowing groan from Alex, and the two looked back as he dragged a hand along his face.

"Something wrong Alex?" She inquired, and with a sweeping motion Alex groaned "N-Never mind…Can you just hand me the artifact?" It was tossed over instantly, though he fumbled it for a few seconds. With a slight grimace as his heart beat fast, Alex focused on the stone and his lips slowly curled into a scowl.

" _Stupid rock…Just what are you made of?"_ He threw it straight back, Shina spinning around and clamping it out of the air before it hit her head. Alex raised his brows and shook his head as they exited the tunnel and finally caught up with Crash. He was belly flopping atop some ugly as sin green worms that were popping out of the ground.

"There you are Crash. Why did you run off?" Aku inquired. Crash stood up and after brushing the dirt from his chest pointed to the left. Around a towering totem was the strange man from before. He trotted around in circles like a country girl in a flower field, and from this close the lipstick and mascara on his large noggin was so frighteningly clear.

"Eaugh! And here I thought I had experienced the scariest thing in my life." Alex said with visible disgust as Shina commented "Nothing wrong with putting on a little make-up" nonchalantly, not at all fooling the boy with her secrecy towards the man's unbelievably idiotic disguise.

With a squint Aku noted "That is definitely not Coco" and Alex followed up with a blunt "It's not even a woman!" as he swung his arms up. His expression would go sour as Crash quickly pursued the man speaking in falsetto.

"Come along Crash! I have a surprise waiting for you!" That 'mysterious' man bounced off a worm to get to higher ground, and Crash did the same.

"…I better offer my protection." Aku said with a wooden sigh, shaking himself and then flying after him. Shina got one inch off when she was jerked back down by Alex using vines from the ground around her left leg. Shina blushed and said "Y-You're being a bit forceful there Alex" as she looked back and put fingers against her giggling lips.

"S-Start looking around. We'll follow them after." He was firm even as his own translucent blush gave away his true feelings. It didn't take long to scan the surrounding jungle, but there was naught a clue to be found. Placing his hands in his pockets and fighting back the urge to grumble profanities, Alex flew up on ahead to the path Crash took, Shina catching up a few seconds later.

"Nothing so far! Oh, but this is so exciting! It's like we're in a haystack, and looking for the nee-"

"Already made the comparison." As Alex was blunt Shina responded with a playful sticking-out of her tongue out as she said "Lighten up Alex, heheh!"

The sound from Alex's ensuing sigh could drown out the deepest yawn, and he chose to indulge in the art of silence as they went along the path and eventually slid down a slope leading to an enclosed stone arena. Crash and Aku were in the middle of it, and on the northern part of the wall was the man still wearing his hastily put together disguise.

But with an over energetic twirl the man would rip the disguise off and reveal his pasty white lab coat with a grin that crossed his whole face. How even someone like Crash did not recognize this man from his thick wavy eyebrows, unkempt beard, and jolting out sideburns is something not even this mad scientist would be able to figure out. With a gesture of his red glove the man said "Surprised to see me Crash?"

Crash and Aku both raised their brows with the bandicoot's lips puckered in surprise, and as the man boasted "Like the fleas in your fur I keep coming back!" Crash began to roughly itch at his chin. His admittedly already short attention span was thus taken far away from the ravings of this lunatic as she stamped his foot down and with a scowl said "THREE YEARS I spent frozen alone in the Antarctic wastes!" with enough red-hot fury that probably would've gotten him out of the ice sooner.

And yet, so quickly, he cuddled his hands against his head fondly and stated "Aaaaaand I missed yooooou!" With Crash's attention grabbed again the man gestured and bowed, continuing on with "So I organized a little gathering. Like a birthday party except…the exact opposite."

Crash did not care any further as his mind already trotted off to dreams of cakes as tall as mountains, a fair amount of drooling sliding out the side of his mouth.

"And look, all your friends are here!" He referred to a gathering of people Crash has indeed met, like the half-croc half-dingo Dingodile, the Mafioso mouse Pinstripe, and the interstellar racer Nitros Oxide to name a few. Of course, to call them 'friends'…well, I think it should be obvious what's really going on here. At least the muscular bandicoot Crunch was there with a slice of cake and genuine intentions, but he was just a confused individual amongst a crowd of bloodthirsty mutants, aliens, and one revenge seeking young polar bear.

"Cortex, has four defeats not taught you a lesson?" Aku-Aku said with calm disdain. Cortex did his deep rooted chuckle as his signature orange hoverboard fell in front of him, and as he leaped onto it he pulled out a red ray gun and said menacingly "Well…The teachers always said I was a BAAAAD learner."

All this time, Alex and Shina hid behind the entrance to the arena until it was suddenly sealed up by a massive slab. Then Shina leaped up and poked her head over, Alex gritting his teeth and whispering while pointing straight down "Shina! We're not getting involved! Get down from there!"

"But what if that strange aura shows up again? I mean, it did the last time…" Shina paddled her feet against the rock and with mouth agape Alex dulled his expression and leaped up to observe limply. As the battle between mad scientist and his greatest failure began, Alex could only pray that things could go simply this time around…

 _Next Time: An Underground Search_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Twinsanity Begins**

With a giddiness he hadn't felt since he was a young boy unwrapping miniature laboratories under the Christmas tree, Cortex flew his hoverboard around the arena Crash was trapped in and took aim with his ray gun. A series of green energy balls were fired upon the bandicoot, who ran in the opposite direction of the reticule on the ground. Cortex shook the gun and said "Blasted thing! What idiot programmed you to project a reticule?! …Oh wait, that was me."

He quickly tried to save face by reaching into his lab coat and pulling out a glowing red bomb. His smirk would make the greatest maniacs jealous as he then threw the bomb down at Crash "Here's one from Tiny!" Even if Crash didn't care, the explosion behind as he ran in circles around the edge of the arena would prevent him from hearing that anyways.

"Ripper Roo, how COULD you!" Cortex threw another bomb to no avail, and his face started looking like a piping mad orange. He grabbed one last bomb and as he threw it kept up his insane party charade by proclaiming "Pinstripe, how THOUGHTFUL!" Even with all of his limp-armed might put into this throw, Crash leaped out of the way in time, sticking a landing by sliding on one knee and throwing his arms up triumphantly.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Pinstripe rubbed some knuckles against his coat and said with surprising sincerity "Hey, it's the least I coulda done after I stole his girlfriend." Everyone around looked at him with deadpan expressions, Dingodile in particular shaking his head and saying with his thick Australian accent "That ain't right mate."

As Cortex spent a good few seconds stamping his hoverboard to the point of throwing himself off-balance, his secretive observers Alex and Shina took differing degrees of pity towards his behavior.

"I forgot how pathetic Cortex could be." Alex could only muster condescension, shaking his head and then saying "That aura would make him a little peskier than a fly. Come on Shina, we're going to keep looking for the artifact now."

He began to pull away when Shina grabbed his wrist and tugged him back in, saying with a smile from cheek to cheek "This is only the first fight Alex! The aura might show up on the robot."

"A machine having aura? Come on, that's ridiculous." Alex brushed her off snootily and yet stuck back to the wall to continue observation, though Shina DID have a rather blunt choice of words "I'm sorry are you the Aurian? No? Thought so. Aura's in all things Alex. Even this wall we're on has aura."

"Oh, so what you're saying is that if our enemy so chose it, they could make this wall come to life and attack us." Alex played the teasing game for once, and Shina giggled before responding "Now THAT'D be ridiculous." As the boy shook his head, Shina looked down at the wall for a few seconds, then with a nervous smirk slowly glided a foot back.

After Cortex was done throwing his tantrum, he aimed the ray gun at Crash and started charging "I signed this gift personally! No takesie-BACKSIES!" before releasing a gigantic green energy ball at his enemy. Crash, done picking his ear, spun around a bit like a mini orange tornado and the energy was reflected right back at Cortex at bullet speeds. The scientist couldn't even get an "Oh!" off before he was blown right off of his hoverboard and sent tumbling right into a bed of spikes under part of the floor he blew up.

Of course in a world this far up it's own buttocks in nuttiness, Cortex is launched out of the spikes with only a "Shink!" to the rear, though as he rubs his reddened rear he drops onto the ground with a hard thud. Aku and Crash approach him, the mask reprimanding him with his body puffing out a little "Once again you try the same thing Cortex, only to have it backfire. There is still a chance for you to just walk away from all this."

Crash extended a helping hand out, but Cortex literally spit on it and then slapped it aside as he stood up. His rear was still throbbing red in pain, forcing a grimace forth, but the doctor clenched his fist enough to crack the bones and said "I'm not going to rest until you're a fine fur pelt on my wall of victories, Crash Bandicoot!"

"Must be a pretty tiny wall." Alex spoke out, and Cortex raised his brows and started looking around. Shina forced Alex's head down as the doctor said "I'm not the only one who heard that right? Bah whatever! What good is a party without a surprise or two? And since one was a failure, lets see how you handle number two…"

Cortex suddenly teleports back up onto the wall after some spins as the arena shakes, a shadow slowly casting down upon Crash as a mechanical behemoth makes it's debut. In shape, right down to the long nose, this machine looked a lot like Crash. But it was outfitted with a chainsaw left arm, a missile launcher right arm, full on hydraulics, and a very clean but killer metal smile. As the engines roared above him, Cortex said gloriously "Meet your new hydraulically operated twin brother…MECHA BANDICOOT! Hehehe…Hahahaahah!"

The forty-foot tall machine landed smacked dab in the middle of the arena, destroying the floor and spikes beneath and causing Crash to be launched onto the wall amidst the fleeting rubble. The onlookers took on the pelting of stone until Dingodile raised his brows and commented in pity "Well, it's official mates…The doc's gone bloomin' mad."

His tone shifted gears to casual as he suggested "Hows about we ditch this sad affair and go get some pizza? My treat, so long as Oxide 'ere provides the ride." Everyone, even Crunch, was in agreement of the plan, and they would be out of there before things got truly chaotic.

Meanwhile, Alex managed to throw Shina's grip off of him and look up, saying bluntly "Hey look, no strange aura. NOW are you satisfied?" Shina held a hand up and nonchalantly pointed out "Well it could be a delayed reaction.." The faceplant Alex did to the wall after left a very clear and cracked indent.

Riding the Mecha Bandicoot was a stout man with a small missile plunged into the right side of his skull. He had the same lab coat as Cortex, and a more volatile demeanor. Cortex rode beside him on his hoverboard and with a few hand swings at Crash he said "N. Gin, engage missile attack!"

"Right away! Prepare to fry, bandicoot!" The titanium titan raised it's right arm and with a few recoils it launched some missiles into the air. They quickly curved downward to fall towards Crash and left a glow as they got closer. Crash went sprinting to the left, while Shina pushed up enough to block the explosion's edge with aura.

When Crash was at the center of the wall, the Mecha Bandicoot lifted it's head and let out a grinding snort as it gathered green energy. Aku looked to Crash and asked "Now would be a good time to use your Bazooka, Crash." The Bandicoot grinned and blankly stared at the mask. Aku raised his brows and replied with calm shame "Crash, why did you leave that at home?"

The energy blast was fired, but Crash casually spun it back into the Mecha Bandicoot's missile launcher. It blew right up with a screeching shatter, and the machine's mouth creaked opened in shock.

"That works too…" Aku says, relieved that Cortex's idiocy still shines through at the best of times. With one weapon down N. Gin throws the chainsaw up and swings it straight at Crash. Agile as he is the bandicoot leaps over it and waves over at the scientists. N. Gin's rocket fumes as his face reddens, then he quickly tries another energy blast, only for it be spun back and destroy the chainsaw. This leaves Cortex fuming after.

"N. Gin! This machine is DELICATE! Stop firing energy blasts at him!"

"You expected me to build this the very second you came back! Of course it's got flaws!" N. Gin proclaimed while pretending he still had limbs in this machine to point at Cortex.

"You should've used our budget better then." Cortex said with a nonchalantly brush off his shoulder, and N. Gin's rocket was seconds from exploding as he proclaimed "We don't have any money after the last game! Oh for-GET it!" The Mecha Bandicoot was turned to Crash, and as he pulled back his head he charged the biggest baddest blast the machine could muster.

"Lets see how you handle THIS, bandicoot!"

As the arena began to shake, Shina tugged on the back of Alex's hairs and said "Oh! Oh! I bet this is the moment that aura shows up!" She only got a muffled groan in response.

All this power the Mecha Bandicoot built up was unleashed in one gargantuan blast…aaaaaaand then Crash casually spun it right back. N. Gin blinked twice and slowly raised a hand to the eject button, being launched far away as the machine blew up. Cortex widened his eyes but then was smacked in the face by a piece of debris, falling off his hoverboard and joining the exploding Mecha Bandicoot as the ground below it broke and opened the way to an underground cavern.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH NOT AGAAAAAAAAAIN!" Cortex's screams died down with his descent, but he would not be alone as a piece of debris boomeranged to Crash's back and knocked him right into the chasm. Aku pursued him down, and Alex finally lifted his head up saying "Is that bullock over with? Can we FINALLY move on?"

Shina peered over the wall and said "Well we could try underground." Alex sighed and lazily floated over the wall to start his descent while weakly gesturing. Shina caught up and held her hand to create aura so compressed it glistened like a firefly. She handed one off to Alex, who fumbled it in his hands, and then created another for herself.

"So what do we do about Crash?" She imposed that question upon someone who could care less, but Alex nevertheless mustered a dry "They'll sort that out on their own. We have no reason to get involved." He turned to find Shina using the classic 'puppy dog pout', and he wouldn't admit it looked a bit cute with the way the light shone on her face.

At the bottom of the chasm, the wreckage of the Mecha Bandicoot was piled in the back of a damp, dank cavern. Cortex barely pulled himself off the ground with his head throbbing, but that feeling would grow strong as he looked at Crash standing perfectly fine in front of him.

Aku had caught up, commenting with his sagely concern "Are you alright Crash?" The bandicoot gave a thumbs up, and the mask could breath a sigh of relief.

"Well, we'll have to take the long way back, but at least you were victorious." Aku and Crash turned, choosing to ignore their defeated foe. Cortex looked at them slowly walking off, and he raised his hands up pretending to choke the bandicoot as his muscles tensed. He grit his teeth and swung his body left and right, trying to force words out of indescribable magnitudes of rage.

Memories of his defeats at the bandicoot's hands rose up, repeating nothing but the impacts of the bandicoots spins against his body time after time again. His vision blurred, steam puffed out of his nose, and all this rage festering inside of him boiled his blood until the proverbial "spinning bandicoot" cut the rope holding the floodgates back. All at once, Cortex's peaked rage burst forth, and like a bull he charged out of his pen straight towards Crash.

With no words Cortex leaped a dozen feet forward and tackled Crash right into the nearby tunnel, quickly slapping and punching him multiple times as the bandicoot fought back, creating a spherical whirlwind of physical violence that sent the two tumbling down the crusty crag caverns. Aku's mouth went agape as he floated in place for a few seconds, giving Alex and Shina enough time to drop down behind him.

"So, guess Cortex finally snapped?" Alex bluntly said, and the mask turned around and commented "I do believe now is not the time for snide comments. Crash is in danger."

"…And yet you're here talking with us?" Alex replied, and after a couple blinks Aku turned around and sped off to catch up with Crash. With a slight grin the boy closed his eyes and said "See Shina, that's what you're supposed to do when someone makes you realize you're wasting-" A slight whisk of air gets him to notice as Shina was already gliding through the tunnel.

"Oh for the love of…" Alex groaned before going after her. It didn't take them long to catch up with the brawling bandicoot and scuffling scientist. They had gotten themselves into a very wide-open cavern which, while still very dark, at least had a few lights across the creaking boardwalks that happened to be down here. Even so focused on beating each other up, the two managed to get past dangerous drills and perilous pit traps with ease. Aku tried to keep the pace, but could only let this brawl play out. At the least, Cortex's squeaky cries of pain ensured him who was winning.

With plenty of space to explore, Alex and Shina split up to searching for the artifact. Shina flew back and forth in a small space thinking to assist Crash, and at one point bites her nails in hesitation. After a long, regretting groan she said "S-Sorry Crash…! Maybe later!" and then turned around to start looking, though she would look over her shoulder occasionally.

Alex was very thorough, peeking into every pocket in the walls no matter how grimy it was, while Shina only had to close her eyes to scan for any aura similar to the artifact. After a few minutes they went to the tunnel opposite where they entered and moved on, the echoes of Crash and Cortex's continued brawl reaching them until they caught up. Aku at this point floated over to Shina and inquired "Isn't there anything you can do to stop this?"

She paused and her kindliness got the better of priorities this time out of guilt, so she hastily assured him "If it looks like Crash is going to go tumbling into the abyss, I'll help him out. But I don't think even the earth splitting beneath their feet could end their nutty feud sorry!" She then flew ahead to get to the next cavern after Alex did.

This cavern was brightened by a bunch of translucent green crystals on the walls and pillars, and the pathway ahead of Crash and Cortex was filled with even more dangerous machinery. Now Nitro Crates were added to the mix, yet they were all avoided as easily as everything else.

"Who even put this junk here?" Alex commented as he went on another search.

"It is certainly perplexing." Alex turned around to see Aku floating rather close by, glancing off with a thought provoked hum.

"Shouldn't you be worrying about Crash?" The boy inquired, and as the mask shook he said "Well there's nothing I can. Besides, everything appears to be fine on Crash's end."

On a flat rock platform, the brawl broke up momentarily as Cortex had Crash on his stomach, the scientist crying his frustrations out in tears as he smacked the bandicoot in the rear, Crash retaliating by nibbling at Cortex's other hand.

"…Mostly." Aku muttered before turning around, but Alex had already gone off somewhere else. The mask followed while inquiring calmly "I am surprised you aren't helping out."

"Well, we got our own mission to accomplish. Besides, Shina's the one who made the offer to help." Alex said matter-of-factly without looking at Aku, who asked in a gentle but puzzled tone "I assumed the Elemental Overlord was a little more selfless."

"Yeah, the last guy was." Alex was mildly irritated and quickly turned around, crushing Shina's aura to state "Look, it's complicated ok?"

"You don't believe a mystic voodoo mask could handle a few details?" Aku said, a quiet but jolly laugh following. Alex glanced aside and muttered "I-It's not that important. The moment we get what we're looking for, we're out of here."

As the mask started humming some more with clear intrigue, and with a roll of his eyes the boy thought _"Oh great, it's Alpha again…In a convenient wooden form!"_ He at least was appreciative of Aku staying silent as he scoured the rest of the walls and ended up landing atop a large plateau in the center of the cavern. Shina was there too, and it didn't take long for Crash and Cortex to come tumbling down some wooden gears.

This finally broke up their fight as Cortex went tumbling out, ending up in front of a floating lithe violet crystal. With sagging under his eyelids, Cortex mustered a weak smile as the light of the crystal bathed him in it's purity.

"A-A crystal…? Finally…my luck is turning!" He stands straight up instantly, but as he crept towards the crystal the ground began to quake. A chunk of it right below Cortex's feet rose up as a slick light-blue drill dug it's way out. It looked pretty advanced by the standards of this world, almost having an alien vibe to it thanks to the pulsating lights on it's sides, all four of which fell down as ramps with glowing buttons on the end. Geez, wonder what those are for.

A mass of glowing energy distorts in the center of the ship, and through it emerged a navy color armored ant wielding some manner of glow stick in two of it's six tiny arms. Aku commented "Where did these come from?" while Shina starting casually walking up to the ant, smiling as she said "Don't worry guys I'll handle this!"

" _No way, is she actually taking this seriously?"_ Alex looked on with arms folds as Shina approached the ant, looking down at them and holding the artifact out. Then, she started clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth in some of sort of intended beat.

"Crck crck crrrrck?" (Excuse me sir, have you seen a stone like this?) Alex's mouth went agape as he heard only noise. The ant did the same thing but also wiggled it's antennae.

"Crccckk ccccrrrrk!" (You will surrender your world to us, human!) Shina raised her brows and with a light chuckle said "Oh, I-I guess I should've seen this coming."

With a shrug she went "Oh well!" and then threw the aura in her hand to blow the ant right back into the portal. Then she flips back and stamps on the button, which seals one of the portals up. She looks back to her allies and gestures forth over her head as more ants rush out from the other portals.

Crash and Alex leap into the fray, with Alex standing atop the left button while waving his hand out to blow away the ants with fire. Crash spun the ants to death immediately and belly flopped onto the button to the right. Then with a twirl high over the ship, including a frazzled Cortex, Shina made some aura hands to push the ants back into the portal and landed softly on the button. The last side was sealed up, and the ramps retracted in as the ship quickly reversed itself back into the ground.

Cortex was now brought to ground level, and he was coddling the crystal against him tightly. This time Crash became allured by the crystal's glow and raised his arms in front of him like a hungering zombie as he moved towards Cortex. The scientist hopped back, holding a hand out defiantly as his eyes shifted and he stuttered "S-Stay back you beast! If you touch this…you'll go CRYSTAL CRAZY!"

Even his flair for the dramatic couldn't deceive the bandicoot, who broke into a stroll and grabbed the crystal while trying to continue on. Cortex resisted, naturally, and tugged tightly on the other end of the crystal as he was dragged along kicking his feet against the ground.

"No! It's mine you wretched bandicoot! Let me have just this one victory! Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?" His begging ALSO proved futile as Crash just took advantage of Cortex's stubbornness to spin him against a nearby cog, which made the lift it was attached to rise up in short bursts. Aku sighed and followed after the two, and Shina was about to do the same when Alex grabbed her shoulder.

"Hey, what was that about?" He asked as she looked back. She replied loftily "Whatcha mean?" and Alex quickly tried to imitate the clicks. His impression sucked, but it got the point across.

"Oh, that! I was speaking to that ant. Pretty cool huh? Pretty rude 'lil fella though." Shina said with little fanfare, and Alex was left thinking _"…Why was I expecting a serious answer. Guess I should be used to her oddities by now…"_ He then left her high and dry and flew up to continue searching the caverns. Shina followed after a puzzled blink.

As they continued to scan the area, Crash and Cortex reached the top of the lift but were then stalled by a gap. On the other side was a small lever, and for a moment Crash let go to look at it from the edge. Cortex crept up with boot raised, but then a decently sized rock smacked him in the noggin thanks to Alex. As visions of bandicoots danced around Cortex's head, Aku floated over to the two and said "Cortex, now would be the time for you to be useful. For once."

Cortex shook off the daze and stood up, remarking sarcastically "Oh I'd LOOOVE to help. But oh would you look at this…?" He pulls out the tattered remains of his blaster and wiggles it around, frustratingly comment "I seem to have LOST THE USE OF MY BLASTER!"

After a few seconds, Crash walked over to Cortex and grabbed the crystal. The scientist remarked "Oh what are you doing NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!" and suddenly he was thrown over the gap. He smashes face first into the switch and it activates, creating a bridge to the other side. Crash walks over and plucks Cortex from the switch with his tongue dangling out, dragging him along behind for more inventive uses of his body!

…And by that I mean he'll be battered around so long as he stubbornly tries to hold onto that crystal. Greed gets you nowhere folks!

So for a while Crash uses Cortex to get their way out further through the cavern. Alex and Shina clean up looking around, meeting up close to the exit of this surprisingly expansive underground. Shina shrugged immediately, and Alex told her "I didn't even SAY anything!"

"Well you aren't holding a stone, I'm not holding a SECOND one, soooooooo…" Shina loftily looked around, and Alex grumbled "Fair point" as he folded his arms behind his head. The cavern rumbled below, and the two looked over to see Crash and Cortex scaling a wall of platforms as the drill from earlier tried to grind them down.

"Can we go help them nooow?" Shina pleaded with hands clasped before her chest, and Alex pulled back to say "If they were in danger, yes. Come on, you know they'll survive. In fact, I give them a minute."

And it only took that long for the two to make it to the top, where the drill just suddenly gave up. Crash waved it off, distracted long enough for Cortex to pull free and proclaim "Free at last! Now, I'm getting out of this nuthouse!" He sprinted so fast through the tunnel that it would make an Olympic athlete blush.

"Well, I hate to share the doctor's sentiments, but now we can go home Crash." Aku said with a sigh of relief. With the mask and bandicoot going through the tunnel, Alex and Shina decided to go on as well.

"Shina, why did the aura lead us here if the second artifact piece isn't around?" The boy inquired with slight frustration, and with the stone in front of her Shina stuck her lower lip out and thought on that for a little. She tossed it up to free her hands for a clap, then smiled and with an expression brimming with optimism she said "Well! We still have the rest of the island to sweep over! So lets make like brooms and get to work!"

"Yeah, sure, great." Ending that off with a roll of his eyes, Alex sighed and lamented the lack of any clues, remembering what happened the last time they were blindly searching around. Being on another video game world did not help his lingering pessimism.

Not even getting out of the caverns and back into the sun changed his attitude, in contrast to Cortex who was kissing the sandy beaches as though it'd be an eternity since he saw them. Crash approached the scientist from behind as he got up, and at the same time Alex and Cortex thought and said the same thing.

"There's no way this could get any worse."

Suddenly, a glorious swirling rift opens up in the sky, forcing the five there to gaze upon the magnificence of a pair of aquamarine parrots wearing otherworldly space suits and glass helmets around their brainy, beaked noggins. Clearly villainous judging by their Dracula inspired metallic collars and long flowing capes, the foremost parrot snidely glared at the group and proclaimed "Bow before our presence, fools of this dimension! For you now face the glory of…The EVIIIIIIL Twins!"

Groaning, Alex muttered "Oh, great…I forgot about these losers. Just what I needed…"

 _Next Time: Bird Blackmail_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Rise of the EVIL TWINS**

"Mwuhahahaha!" The two pesky parrots engage in some undoubtedly loose laughter, and as Crash and Cortex share a confused shrug the birds keep at it for a good twenty seconds. When they are done, the foremost bird looks down as Cortex holds his hands together and says mockingly "Aren't you two just ADORABLE?"

With a spark of inspiration, Cortex reaches for his back pocket and continues "In fact, I may even have some chunky treats for you!" The bird in the back flies over on his hovering platform with longing drool leaking from his beak, excitedly saying "Chunky treats, oh boy!" The other bird stops him with a stern look and wave of his gloved wing, then moves forward to glare at Cortex with the utmost arrogance.

"We've got some good news, and some bad news." He said as he swung his wings out with each point he made. The second bird flew to deliver the news with lofty nonchalance "The bad news is…We're going to destroy your entire island!"

"The good news is, well…" With a sly laugh the other bird says without a care "None of you will be around to SEE it." With brows raised furiously Cortex brushed the birds off without looking at them, then raised a fist out with frustrated eyes.

"How tiresome. Now listen here feather brains, I, Dr. Neo Cortex, will-" The serious bird mockingly flapped his fingers to mimic the scientist's mouth movements, earning a laugh from his comrade. The bird then thrust a finger at him when he wouldn't shut up before exclaiming "So you want to play mind games?! Ok tough guy!"

At first Cortex looked ahead, face wrapped in a layer of absolute confusion. Then his head shot up like hairs stiffened by fright, and after some abnormal twitching his right ear widened as his brain was pulled out like a milkshake through a bendy straw. The brain was dragged over into the hands of the bird, frightening Cortex.

Alex and Shina, who were watching this unfold, both grimaced at the presence of Cortex's slimy cranium, but it wasn't long before Alex whispered "We should really be moving on." Shina nodded her head and took a step when all of a sudden she found Cortex's brain in her hands as the bird proclaimed "Hey lower life form, catch!"

"EEK!" Shina shrieked before she fumbled the brain around, only stopping when Alex slapped it back over the birds. The serious bird guffawed a bit, then pulled back on the brain to lob it right at Cortex, who looked as though he had just been put under a sleeping drug. He fell onto his rear with the brain on his stomach, and the serious bird grinned before saying "Now this is the part where you run away screaming like the prissy back there."

"Well that's very rude." Shina replied bluntly before puffing her cheeks in a pout. Cortex wasn't moving even after he stood up, at least not until the birds waved a hand out. Then Cortex screamed so loud it frightened Crash, and he would continue to scream as he went scrambling across the beach with brain coddled against his chest.

"Yeah, go on, run!" The serious bird said, with his dopey counterpart saying "Catch ya later brainiac!" as Cortex disappears from sight. After he was left in tears by his laugh, the serious bird turned around and commented "Hooo boy, that was fun." However, he was immediately met by Aku ramming into his helmet.

"Hey look Maurice, an angry piece of wood. We don't have any of those back home!" The bird said to his dim-witted comrade while poking Aku a couple times, bringing irritation upon the mask's expression. Meanwhile, Alex and Shina try to tip-toe around the scene.

"Oh boy! Can I keep it? Can I? Can I?" Maurice said with a jolly clap, while Aku ignored their shenanigans to say with some authority "What gives you the right to just waltz in here and try to destroy our island?"

"Hey, he even has real talking action! We didn't even have to do anything to him. Aren't you just the most precious wittle thing?" Maurice flies over and tugs at Aku's cheeks, making them pull apart with a rubbery sound squeaking out. With eyes widening along with his face, the mask stuttered "W-What's going on here? How are you doing this?"

Crash put his mouth in an "O" of awe and then waved at himself with both hands. Maurice looked to his brother and said "Hey Victor, I think the bandicoot wants to play with us!" Victor rubbed the part of his helmet in front of his chin and said "Well Maurice, you know what they say about having fun…"

Turning around, Victor snaps his fingers and a gigantic wall of stone rises up in front of Alex and Shina's path. With a menacing grin as the two turned around he then said "The more…the _merrier_ …" Alex frowned while Shina chuckled a little, commenting as she stealthily drew her rapier behind her back "S-So uhhh…This isn't good."

Alex didn't register her nervousness with much care and replied "Oh don't worry about it, these two are just feathery balloons filled with hot air" then folded his arms as the birds floated a few feet away from him.

"So, just where did you think you were going?" Victor inquired, and with a coy smile Alex pointed back before replying "Oh we were just going to make like a banana and split." Maurice's eyes lit up and with pumped fists said "Oh boy, you have a banana?!"

"No you DUNCE!" Victor bitterly smacked his brother hard enough to send him spinning for thirty seconds, though he was enjoying himself the whole time. With a shake of his head Victory looked at the duo and rubbed his fingers together while pondering aloud "Now…what shall I do with you two?"

"Oh please, good sir…" Shina put on a forcibly poor British accent as she held her hands together and said "My friend and I are but simple folk scouring this fair island for treasure for our poor families. I beg of you to find the kindness in your hearts to let us go."

"Hmmm…" Victor raised a brow and then flew right at her, with a brush of his wing flipping her around and revealing her rapier. Shina blushed with widened eyes as the bird rubbed his helmet and said "And since when do treasure hunters carry rapiers?"

Shina turned back around and shuffled her hands in front of her, cheeks red as she rustled out an explanation "W-Well you see I uhhh…Need to defend myself from bears! Yeah!" Victor replied calmly "There's no bears around here."

Shina went quiet by sucking her lips in and glancing around, while Alex stepped in front of her and said with taunting nonchalance "Flock off feather face, don't you have a car window to desecrate?" Using the same mocking finger wave the birds gave Cortex, Alex followed up with a sublime smirk.

"Thanks buddy!" Shina whispered while calming down, and Alex gave her a slightly annoyed glance while Victor said "Well whatever, it doesn't seem like you lower life forms are doing anything, so perhaps you can do something for us."

"Yeah no." Alex said immediately, and with a briefly irritated chuckle Victor flew over to him and laid a wing on his back. "Look, I know your brain hasn't evolved to our level, and we get that. It's what makes you humans fun to exploit. But what we're asking ain't much."

Alex rolled his eyes as the bird flew back and snickered, his devious mind working like a well oiled machine. At this point Maurice had stopped spinning, looking to his brother and commenting "Oh boy! You've come up with another crazy plan haven't ya?"

"Only the craziest!" Victor swung at Alex and proclaimed "YOU, weakling, have been personally chosen to go on a journey to find that loser Cortex and bring him to us!" Maurice threw some fireworks up out of his hands while suddenly the 1812 Overture went off around him.

"Hooray!" He cried out in celebration while Victor grimaced, the increasing volume on his growl forcing his brother to giggle and stop. Alex commented with a lofty gesture "Couldn't you two just take care of that himself?"

"We could. Maybe if you had INCREDIBLE DIMENSIONAL POWER!" Victor spent the next few seconds warping the fabric of time and space around him boastfully, returning it right back to normal and continuing "Then you'd understand how fun it is to mess with others. But as it stands, you-" Alex rolled his eyes and then with a quick ignition of his right fist he backhanded the wall behind him, filling it with glowing cracks and causing it to crumble into a creek of pebbles.

Victor and Maurice widened their eyes, and Alex was smirking to say "Oh please do go on. It'd give me enough time to use MY incredible power…" He punched the burning fist against an open palm to crack the knuckles, his smirk widening into a grin as a fire ignited proudly in his eyes "To turn you into a couple of nice toasty chicken dinners."

Shina widened her eyes and shook her head, whispering to Alex "What are you nuts?!" He still couldn't get her behavior and quietly shushed her. Victor chuckled, but his expression was one of dwindling patience. With a couple claps he said "Nice fireworks display. You're really enjoying flapping your beak on that one. But lets how funny this is to you…WHEN YOU'RE A DUCK!" With a millisecond finger thrust, Victor held a point at Alex.

Alex raised his brows and smiled, letting go of his hands and the flames around them to loftily put them aside and slowly shake his head. Victor thrust his finger out a few more times, each thrust faster than the last. Only Maurice commenting "Victor, maybe you ran out of juice?" got the bird to stop and direct his anger out at his brother "Since when does reality-bending run on batteries you nincompoop?!"

Alex's chuckle and Shina's face blanketed with confusion got Victor to spin around and fly forward, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and proclaiming "Alright wise guy, what's your secret?!" The boy spit on the bird's helmet, telling him with a tone dripping with arrogance "Well what do you know, this IS a lot of fun!"

With face steaming red, Victor backed off threw a bit of a temper tantrum on his platform, stamping on it like a child denied his sweets. Alex looked to Shina and said "Man I needed that. Come on, lets get back to work." Shina commented hastily "Well you should tell me what just happened first!" as they turned and moved on.

Then, like he was smashed with a club of bamboo, inspiration struck the bird. With a swing of his wing up he said "Well lets see how you like THIS then!" As he cackled like a gremlin he shot a bolt of energy towards Shina, who didn't even get to respond as she was hit and turned into a puff of pink smoke. Alex looked aside and widened his eyes, letting out an involuntary cry of "Shina!" before the smoke faded and he turned around with fists aflame.

"What did you do to her?!" He exclaimed, and the birds hovered over to him. Victor brushed a wing out while saying "Don't get your bristles in a bunch human. Look down, we gave her a few 'improvements'…Relatively speaking." Alex, with teeth grit, glanced beside himself and saw not the girl he traveled with, but rather an average sized chicken with a golden cowl and blue feathers. It looked around with a few clucks with the artifact beside it, focusing it's gaze onto Alex's mortified expression before he turned on the twins and exclaimed "You turned her into a chicken?!"

"We…I mean **I** had a lot of ideas, but honestly those can be saved for later…If you don't comply that is." Victor said with a callous glance as he rubbed his fingers together arrogantly. Alex mumbled out with an infuriated breath "You want me to bring Cortex to you…" and Victor snapped his fingers.

"There you go! See, you lower life forms CAN learn a thing or two. Surely for someone of your power it'll be a piece of cake!" He realized what he said and before Maurice could even speak Victor turned and hushed him with a wing across the beak. Then with a glance back at Alex he waved out to the air and a zipper slid down, revealing a dimensional rift.

"If you comply, I'll turn her back, no strings attached. So get to work little boy. Tick-tock, time's a wasting." With that the two birds fly into the zipper, but not before a fist of flame strikes it's sealing frame. Alex lets out an exasperated "GAAAAAAAAH!" and puts his flames away, reaching into his right pocket to touch a spherical object in there.

" _Useless thing! You're supposed to stop that stuff from happening!"_ It didn't take long for the frustrations to vent from his body enough to realize something, but then he went from directing his anger from the birds to himself with a firm slap to the forehead.

" _That's right, I made it so only I can use it. Great…"_ As he slid his finger down his face he bemoaned "Now I have to worry about more asinine bulls-!" With a sharp pause, Alex lowered his hands in front of him and took in a deep breath, letting it out as clean and fresh as a mint.

"No…It's alright. No big deal, I just have to find Cortex and drag him to those idiots. Then we can get right back to work." Alex then started turning to Shina while smiling "Boy, at least as a chicken you won't be talking for-" His smile drooped into a frown as he gazed upon an odd sight. Shina had turned and in front of her were the words 'Thanks for standing up for me Alex!' etched into the air with aura.

Slowly raising his eyes, Alex's stare went blank and his lips puckered inward. As his pupils shrank, a slight sweat dripped down the sides of his face as his mind went racing _"W-Wait a second…She understood what was happening? B-But that would mean she thinks I cared. M-My reaction wasn't anything out of the ordinary, was it?"_ Flashbacks to a couple minutes ago finally show Alex how angry he suddenly was.

With his eyes glancing around everywhere as she sweat increased, his thoughts continued at a more frantic pace of denial _"N-Now wait a second, I don't care about her as a friend! W-We're just travel companions, that's it, nothing more honest! Wait…why am I having to deny this to myself?! This is my own mind for crying out loud! Oh geez what do I even say now?!"_

After a couple glances at Shina as she tilted her head and gobbled, Alex muttered out "I-I didn't do it because I think of you as a friend or anything." Then widened his eyes and slapped his forehead again _"Really? This is what my life has led to? Being Tsundere to a chicken?!"_ After a little bit of thinking, Alex sighed and kicked the sand.

"Oh whatever. I'll grab Cortex and you'll be back to normal soon enough." He looked at her to see her etching the words 'Don't do that!' using the tip of her wing. Alex replied bluntly "Well why not?!" Frustrated that her behavior was seemingly just as unfocused as before.

"Your friend is right." Aku's wisdom came back to Alex's attention, but with a reddish blush he blared "She's not my fri-" stopping only when he saw the mask and Crash approaching. Then he wondered snidely "Where were you guys?"

"I felt it was safer to observe from a distance. Those Evil Twins are too dangerous to take lightly. Though like them, I am curious to know how you weren't affected by their powers." Aku raised his brows, and Alex looked away to quickly say "None of your business! …W-With all due respect."

"Hmmm…You're allowed your secrets, I suppose. But at this point you cannot simply fry the Evil Twins, otherwise your friend might not turn back." Alex rolled his eyes and groaned "Yeah, can't just kill the reality bender, that'd be too easy. Fine, then I'll just hand Cortex over to those bird brains."

"And if they don't change her back? …I'm not keen to the idea, but as of now we need to work TOGETHER with Cortex instead of against him. Only then can we stand against the Evil Twins." Following that, Shina lets out a cluck and that gets their attention towards her etching the words 'Don't worry about me Alex, we can still look for the artifact. Cortex's machines could help us go after the Evil Twins.'

"Shina, you can't tell me your fine being a chicken. How are you even going to move around?" With a flutter of her wings, feathers went flying as Shina leaped right up, landing on Alex's head and resting herself comfortably with a wiggle of her body. She let out a quiet coo and the boy said "Ha ha very funny." He then grabbed and put her on his right shoulder. She dug into the shirt with her talons and gobbled.

Alex looked aside and realized with a blush "Ah geez, wouldn't she technically be n-n-n-nu-?" He only glanced back at her to see the words 'Thanks for being gentle for my first time' with her putting a wing on the side of her face. Alex turned beet red and said hastily to Aku "S-So what do you want to do now?!"

"Cortex couldn't have gone far. We can catch up with him and offer an alliance. His arrogance will not allow him to accept the Evil Twins' plans." Aku said with sage calmness, but Alex pointed out "And yet he'll be fine working with his hated foe?"

"There might be some disagreement, but you could potentially sway the doctor's opinion." Aku said, and Alex looked around until pointing at himself and getting a nod from the mask. With a grumble of "Greeeeeaaat…" he shook his head and looked to Shina.

"I'm playing the diplomat now. Hope you're happy."

'You can do it!' She etched happily into the air, giving a feather up of faith while Alex sighed and turned back to say "Cortex went into that cave. Lets go, I'm getting sick of the beach…" After Alex picked up the artifact the group strolled through a small cave and went closer to the center of the island, ending up in a very relaxed and sparkling grove. A river flowed serenely to the right, the birds were chirping, and the luscious plant life was spread out enough so anyone could take the time to enjoy their individual splendor.

Not far beyond the exit of the caves stood Cortex, his brain lodged back into his skull as he stood still looking out at the beauty in front of him. Only the footsteps approaching disturbed him enough to look back. Alex firmly said "Ok look here Cortex. I-" but the doctor said with an eerie level of tranquility "I never realized how beautiful this island was."

"What?" Alex inquired as he held back any further bluntness, allowing Cortex to stroll around and comment "I always tried to conquer it along with the rest of the world, sure, but when you look at it this closely can you blame me?"

Aku had none of that and said "You tried to poison it multiple times, Cortex" and the doctor waved his arm out to say bluntly "Eh, minor details." While Aku gave him a firm glare and tempered his patience, Cortex continued "And now those dumb birds want to just come in and destroy it. Hmmm…"

Suddenly, as Crash was scratching the back of his head, Cortex sprinted over and strangled his arms while exclaiming unhinged "You have to help me Crash! You heard them! They'll enslave you, humiliate you AND me, and will even steal my brain! Oh the inhumANITY of it all!" Cortex put a hand dramatically to his forehead after letting go of Crash hard enough to make him spin.

Then Cortex stepped forward and gestured out, saying after a sigh "Oh Crash…Sometimes I envy the simpler folk." He was referring to some native tribes folk on the other side of the river that were currently engaged by the jiggling flab of their portly leader. At this point Alex was wondering if Cortex was purposely ignoring him.

Then the scientist went for the flowers as bees buzzed around them, commenting like a philosopher in distress "To live in harmony with mother nature…The noble boar…The humble bumblebee." He then accidentally brushed a bee, instantly causing an incredible monstrous swarm to fly around his head. Cortex's calmness broke with an agonizing scream and he started sprinting towards the river…Which was now suddenly much wider and had gained a series of life-threatening traps across a pair of bamboo bridges.

Alex widened his eyes and rubbed them with his fists, blinking a bit before Shina pecked him one on the side of the head and pointed out Crash and Aku crossing the bridge opposite Cortex.

"First off, that stung. Second, we're not going after them. I'm going to look for the next artifact while we're here." Alex replied while giving her an admonishing finger waggle. Shina's eyes sparkled as they followed the finger, then she bit down on the tip and Alex grimaced. Pulling away as the finger throbbed, he said "Behaving like a chicken too…And you're sure you want to stay this way?"

She nodded her head, then Alex shook his head and commented snidely "Well if you want to help you're welcome to lay an egg on the bees." Then broke into a sprint to fly off the edge of the river and search around for the artifact. Shina gripped on his shoulder while clucking excitedly.

Meanwhile, Cortex kept screaming far beyond what his lungs should've been capable of, and while Crash could help the doctor proceed past the traps from his end he could do nothing to stop the hive falling onto his head along with halting the blue bear that stood on it's hind legs and ran after him.

Alex went at scanning the environment down to the last detail, going "Nope!" every time he examined a large structure. There were plenty of tikis around, fitting considering the natives, but all of them were as hollow as Alex's care towards Cortex's anguish. When all was said and done, he landed on the other side of the river right as Cortex tumbled over and broke the beehive. The bees gave up at this point, leaving their victim covered in bumps.

Alex ignored Cortex as he was approached by the natives from earlier, commenting with a tapping foot "I'm starting to wonder if it's even on this island." Cortex was bound up in rope after a light scuffle, screaming as he was carried away "Let go of me you primitive sissies! I'll have you know I'm-" He was slapped with some duct tape to the mouth and his muffles were drowned by another nearby river.

Shina's wild clucks did not disturb Alex's thoughts, as he brushed her feathery chest and said "Yeah yeah, we'll find the artifact eventually." It took a peck to the head followed by Aku and Crash approaching for Alex to look around and realize that Cortex was gone.

"Oh right…Stupid teleporting Indians." Alex grumbled with little care, and Aku floated up and said reprimanding "Why did you let him get captured? We need him to stop the Evil Twins."

"Maybe, but it's not like rescuing him from a bunch of Indians will take very long. Besides, not like they'll skin him alive. This world's too E-Rated for that." He nonchalantly brushed his hand out while Shina flapped her wings in frustration. Aku grumbles and replied "We can't take any risks. Lets rescue him immediately. That means you too, young Overlord." Aku and Crash advanced towards the next river, and with a sigh Alex put up little resistance in following…

 _Next Time: The Goal Reached, but…!_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The Terrible Timing of Tiki-Tong**

Going ahead to the river Cortex was taken towards, the group finds a watchtower stationed amongst the raging rapids. Staying behind some thick cattails, Crash and Aku peered occasionally at the native surveying the lands with his googly-eyed binoculars. Alex meanwhile sat down and grumbled as the two talked, the chicken formerly known as Shina nestled atop his shoulder.

"Crash, now would've been a good time to use your Bazooka. Without it, we'll just have to sneak by." Aku said with gentle reprimanding, but Alex got his attention with a scoff and said once he looked his way "We don't need to waste time with that. Watch this."

Nestled against his hip was a pebble that he plucked and lightly hovered above his palm. Turning around and going on his knees, Alex lined up the shot between the cattails and shot the pebble at the native's forehead. It ricocheted off the skin and shot through the roof, and after stiffening upright the native collapsed with a muffled thump.

Alex stood up and bowed, with Aku raising his brows while Crash gave a thumbs up and quickly ran away from the cover. He made his agile leaps across spinning canoes and atop crocodile mouths without a care, Aku keeping up just in case he needs protection. Alex floated past all the obstacles and used more pebbles to knock out the remaining guards along the way, though he wasn't even looking as he threw them.

"Nope, no artifact piece around here." Alex said once they reached the end of the river, ending up in a small hog farm. Crash looked back at Aku and wiggled his eyebrows with a mischievous smile, followed by the mask stating "No Crash, those hog wild days are behind you. Besides, where will you even take it?"

Crash pointed to the right quickly and Aku saw nothing but a small coastline. "…Crash, stay focused." Aku clearly wanted to say more but resigned to a sigh. Alex catches up and adds on to that bluntly "Yeah, stay focused. After all, you got to rescue the guy who wants you dead!"

"And the only person who might be able to reverse your friend's condition." Aku stated as the group skidded down to the coastline. Alex turned and with a gesture asked "You say that but…those reality-bending batty birds transformed Shina. You think science can surpass magic?"

"What happened to your friend is quite similar to the Evolv-o-Ray that Cortex used to make his mutants, including Crash. It's possible that he should be able to reverse the transformation." Aku replied calmly, and as Crash bent down and scratched at his ears with a shoe Alex gave the mask a suspecting glance and snidely said "And then mind-control her to his side. Not taking the risk."

Shina etched the words 'Yeah, sorry Aku, I don't trust Cortex' and then nodded her head with a coo. Aku's reply was not in the favor of the doctor as he hesitantly said "Well, we can hope on the possibility of him being appreciative of the rescue."

'Oh ok!' Shina wrote with aura and Alex glanced at her and said "Really? Just like that? You're too trusting Shina, but…Can't say we have any better options. Unleeeeeeessss…" Alex winked at Aku, who sighed and shook himself a bit.

"No, we're not giving Cortex up. Of course, if we waste our time talking, then his fate might not be certain…" Aku said, and with a snap of his fingers Alex said merrily "I LIKE the way you think, lets go!" Alex then rocketed straight to the top of a cliff to the right of where they left off, ending up near the spiky wooden walls of a contained native village.

It took a bit for Aku and Crash to catch up, but Alex took that time to survey the environment. There were a few huts around and it seemed the natives liked to corral those grotesque green worms. The most important thing though was Cortex's predicament. He was roped up atop a towering totem pole, with the natives dancing around it while wielding flaming spears. The most decorated and fattest native observed the dance from his wooden throne that was carried by four of his peers, yet he barely seemed to care.

Cortex kicked his feet around and looked absolutely panicked. If his skin could be pale, he'd look whiter than his lab coat.

"N-Now isn't this a bit of an overreaction? I don't even see what I did wrong here!" Cortex bemoaned to the leader, who took the time to grumble and point at a sign that had Cortex's face painted with detail that would make Da Vinci blush. However, that same detail was blemished by a sloppily painted red "X"

"I'm flattered by the detail, but you COULD just tell me. We all speak the same language here." Cortex said, but the leader just mimed the meaning behind his gesture by wiggling some fingers before his chest to represent trespassing. Then he moved those same fingers across his neck and forced himself to gag. Still flustered by his brain removal, Cortex resorted not to common sense but a frustrated snark of "Oh come on! You had a voice in Crash Team Racing!"

Alex snickered at the events while Shina clucked in a melancholy manner, etching 'I feel a bit sorry for him…' while Alex told her "Why? He poisoned their island before. This was a few years coming." Shina responded with a couple reprimanding gobbles.

"Yeah yeah, we can't let him burn because then we lose the ability to turn you back." Alex then mumbled "Would just be easier to give him up" and snuck into the village. He zipped around without making a sound until he was behind a hut closest to the totem pole. As his mind worked up a plan, Aku's voice called out to him.

"We need to work fast."

Alex had a mini heart attack and turned back to see Aku and Crash there. The bandicoot waved hello, but with exasperated breaths Alex inquired "H-How did…?" He looked back at the entrance and then back to the two, doing this a few times before leaning against the hut and letting out a deflated sigh.

"It's not important…Do you want me to just fly over and untie Cortex?" He then asked.

"That'd be the simplest solution. We wouldn't want to harm the natives." Aku replied, and Alex peered around the corner and saw them sharpening their spears next to a circle of skulls while Cortex tried to finagle his way out by saying "Look, I can give you lovely if not primitive folk something for you troubles. How about your own casino? You like that type of thing, right?"

The natives ignored him by sharpening their spears even louder, and Cortex groaned to say "Oh now that's just RUDE!" Alex pulled back and with a bit of hand waving before his chest he admitted "They're good people…Maybe a bit animalistic but good people nonetheless."

"…So I'll drag Cortex's useless self off that totem pole, then we'll hightail it down the nearby riverside to get back to the center of the island." Alex followed up with a gesture back and Aku nodded.

"We will provide a distraction." Aku and Crash then ran for the nearby hog pen, which caused some of the attentive natives to perk their head up and chase after them with spears aflame. Alex then murmured "This wasn't really necessary, but whatever…The less scars the better."

He then leapt atop the roof and flew towards the totem pole. Once he was close enough, Shina fluttered off and started rapidly pecking at the ropes to break them up. Cortex's expression was too tired for confusion, so he weakly mumbled "A chicken rescuer? Truly I have reached a new low…"

"Well lets not make rash observations here." Alex said, and before Cortex got acknowledge his presence the boy threw him unconscious with a punch to the gut. Shina let out a "BAWKAW!" and fluttered onto Alex's shoulder as he hauled Cortex over the other. Shina slaps his face with a wing, but seeing as it had the weight of a leaf Alex just glanced at her and commented "Look, I just didn't want him trying to claw at me like he did Crash earlier."

Alex then pulled back to dodge a spear thrown up, then saw a dozen more natives lined up for a shot and grinned.

"Sorry, but we're taking your, admittedly, well-deserved prisoner! You can have him back la-" He pulls so far back he almost spins to dodge some spears, widening his eyes and throwing them a two-fingered gesture before flying over to the meeting place nearby.

"Now, where did Crash run off-" He would receive his answer when Crash came barreling over the river riding a big hairy hog. He had the hog's ears gripped tightly and the beast squealed not in pain but ecstasy. Alex blinked twice then looked back as the natives leaped over the river to continue pursuit. Breaking into a sprint, he followed Crash as the boar broke through logs and stone easily.

The natives tried to throw their spears but missed as the distance grew farther. It didn't take long for the group to cross a gap and make it into a cave, where Crash leaped off the hog and watched as it rammed through the nearby wall. It just kept going and going, not wanting to stop. Crash scratched the side of his head and turned to Aku, who caught up panting.

"A-At least that went better than last time." He said, followed by him looking at Alex and his cargo.

"Cortex must have been given a sleeping agent…" He commented, with Alex telling him quickly and nonchalantly while giving the scientist a jerk "Oh I just knocked him out with a punch…Maybe I hit him too hard."

Shina etched 'You could at least try and sound guilty!' while giving Alex a few reprimanding caws. Aku commented "Regardless, we should try and wake him." Crash reached deep, deep, DEEP into his mind and pulled forth an idea with his usual goofy grin. He approached Cortex and grabbed the sides of his head, lifting it up and puckering his lips.

Cortex, thankfully, sprung awake to the horrifying sight of this bandicoot kissing him on the forehead. After his heart was seconds away from stopping outright, he swung his head up and screamed so loud it could be heard across the whole island. It stopped when Alex dropped him on his back, but he scrambled to his feet like a frightened spider and pointed to the boy.

"Alright, I want an explanation for who you are! You and your malignant chicken!"

Cortex was caught up on Alex and Shina's journey minus any information on the artifacts, and Alex hid the one they had behind him. Cortex raised his brows and with a wave of the hand commented "Well I don't see how any of this is MY problem. If you ask me you should cook the dead weight and move on."

Alex stamped his foot with arms crossed, causing a wall of stone to erupt in Cortex's path. The boy then said as the scientist turned around with an apathetic look on his face "I don't care how much of a bad day you've been having. I can make it MUCH worse." He raised a hand as the fingertips burned, but Shina let out a gentle coo and shook her head disapprovingly.

"Like he'll respond to anything but a threat to the only thing he cares about." Alex nodded to Cortex, who was trembling at the knees. Aku got between the two and said firmly to Alex "There is an EASIER way to handle this."

The mask then offered his sagely logic to the man and said "Cortex…Whether you like it or not, those Evil Twins are a far greater threat than you. But if we were to combine forces, we could stop them."

"Oh don't get me wrong you floating mumbo jumbo plank, I would LOOOOOOVE to get revenge on those pesky parrots for their humiliation…" Cortex threw a finger at Crash, who was in the middle of picking his ears, and exclaimed "But if you expect ME to work with THAT BANDICOOT after HE ruined my plans, destroyed three, need I remind you very expensive, bases, and caused me to get frozen next to your accursed evil brother for three years…Then you're nuttier than a fruit cake!"

Crash stopped and pointed at himself, and even in the face of the scientist's understandable anger Aku remained calm and asked him "Cortex, is your pride TRULY worth more than the world? If you are so worried about Crash, you have my assurance that he will not cause you any grief if you willingly work with us."

Cortex pulled back and gestured to the right with a spiteful "And what of the budding arsonist?" As Shina chuckled to the best of her chicken capabilities, Alex dialed down the flames and replied "So long as Shina's back to normal and we accomplish our goal, I'm not going to do anything to you. But if you try ANYTHING-"

"Yeah yeah, you'll light me up like it's the fourth of July. You think I haven't heard that one before?" Cortex said without fear, and after a pause Alex dropped the rock wall and said "So long as we understand each other."

And thus this incredible alliance of a magical wooden mask, a mentally busted bandicoot, a yellow-skinned mad scientist, a boy with anger issues, and a girl turned into a chicken was formed. Their first order of business…

"So now we need to find the Evil Twins. Anyone got any ideas?" Alex inquired as the group walked out of the cave back, this time ending up on a hilltop not far from the beach where they met the Evil Twins.

"Well, if I had another Crystal I could power a tracking device." Cortex suggested, and a raspy gasp called out to them from the left. They turned to see a blue anthropomorphic chicken wearing farmer's overalls and straw cap, and he had a Crystal coddled under his left wing.

"If you're looking for a crystal, I'd be more than happy to give you one if you're willing to help out." The chicken said in a tired voice, then he gestured at a group of worms near a cliff. With a sigh the chicken said "You see, the farmer's market is starting soon, but these worms keep eating at my crops. If-"

With swift and undue mercilessness, Cortex pulled out his ray gun and rapidly shot the chicken until he collapsed over and dropped the crystal. After blowing the smoke off of his weapon the scientist walked over and picked the crystal up, looking back at the exasperated expressions of his colleagues before being blunt "I'm an evil scientist, what did you expect? This isn't a game…" He then waggled his finger in some unrelated direction.

Alex said with a brimming grin "I think I'm warming up to you" while Shina clucked at him with a furious flap of her wings. Alex pinched her beak shut and her voice went muffled, though the feathers went flying farther. Noticing this, Cortex said with a groan "Oh come now…Stop choking your chicken and get a move on."

Alex widened his eyes and blushed, then let go and brushed some feathers off his shirt. Even after the chicken was dead, Crash grabbed the crystal and used Cortex to bash the worms in, causing a bunch of trees to sprout and make a staircase to the next cliff. Cortex forced Crash to let go and exclaimed "Enough of that you imbecile! …Now, how am I supposed to get up this cli-"

Cortex grimaced as Crash grabbed the crystal, remarking "Why do I even bother…" before being thrown to the top of the tree stairs. When the rest of the group caught up, they found a wide-open area wedged between two small mountains. There was a large stone tiki with an agape mouth built into the ground, but more importantly was the presence of the Evil Twins beside this tiki. They had sat themselves on some floating lawn chairs complete with popcorn and a drink on the arms.

"Boy I say you fellas have been doing swell, real swell." Victor spoke up sarcastically, and Alex ran up closest to the birds and raised a blazing hand at them. Cortex and Crash lingered behind with little care on their faces.

"Put that thing down kid, you'll burn your eyes out." Victor said with an aloof wave of his arm, followed by him looking around and saying in a more intrigued tone "Gotta say, loving the sights around N. Sanity Island. So much to see, so much to DESTROY!"

As Victor pumped his fists in excitement, Crash and Cortex looked at each, the scientist giving an uncaring roll of the eyes as Victor listed off things he could destroy "The native villages, the lava caves, the totem gods!" Maurice smiled and said "Yeah, there's nothing as colorful in the Tenth Dimension as the totem gods! Not even this strange rock that got dumped off with us not too long ago…"

He pulls out a rock that undoubtedly was an artifact similar to the one Alex was carrying around. Shina started flapping her wings and cawing loudly, as Alex exclaimed in surprise "W-What do you mean 'dumped off'?" Victor was the one happy to comply as Maurice was too busy giggling as he juggled the stone.

"He meant what he meant you moron. We were just getting back to plot our next evil plot when suddenly 'Plop!' And then we had this stone. Need more time to process that?" He was condescending, as usual, but Alex ignored that and grumbled to Shina "Well now we know why the trail went cold…"

"Heeeey wait a second. Victor, they got a stone of their own too!" Maurice said while bouncing on his chair, and Victor watched as both Alex and Shina got surprised by the idiot's observation.

"Well well weeeell…What a coinky dink. And just WHY are there two of these strange stones out there? They look like they fit together too…" Victor flew close to Alex and rubbed his chin, and with him raising his burning hand he said "It's just part of a map, nothing you'd be interested in."

"A lot of aggression for a map. I think you NEED this. Fascinating…" Victor flew back over to his brother and swiped the artifact piece, waving it around and saying "But if you want it so badly, then you can have it…All you have to do is give up Cortex, as we requested."

"Bite me." Alex responded, and Victor in turn went "Sorry, but we don't like spicy foods." Maurice on the other hand drooled and wiggled his fingers around "Speak for yourself brother!"

After rolling his eyes, Victor spun the stone around and said "In fact lets make this more interesting shall we? You can choose…! This stone…" The bird smirked and pointed outward "Or the girl…"

Shina quickly etched into the air 'He'll take the stone!' and Alex looked at her and blubbered out "W-What are you nuts? You want to keep traveling as a chicken?!"

Cortex meanwhile looked back at Crash and Aku and said "I have NO IDEA what's going on here. Why is this so hard to follow?"

Alex spun his head away from Shina and said with a snap of the fingers "No deal bird brains, I'm going to turn her back AND get the stone!" Victor's face turned purple as he stuttered "W-What kind of hair-brained answer is that?! I gave you one choice or another…You don't get to pick a third option! Why are you so bad at answering questions?!"

After panting a little, Victor floated back and said "Y-You know what? Doesn't matter…You'll change your mind in due time. For now, why don't all of you have some fun with our little friend Tiki-Tong." The birds moved out of the way as the tiki's eyes opened wide with a bright green glow. However, as it came to life and ripped it's four hulking stone arms from the ground those eyes turned red and he was bathed in a dark purple aura.

Letting out a roar, the tiki immediately threw a punch at the confused Alex and sent him crashing into a wall. Maurice whistled and said "Wow! Neat trick Victor!" Victor blinked a few times and looked at the tiki's aura, then he responded to his brother with "Y-Yeah! Totally what I planned to do here!"

Alex ripped himself from the wall and Shina wobbled on his shoulder with a slurred caw. He looked at her and said "You can't fight, so sit this out." He picked her up in one hand and placed her on the ground, then after drawing his sword he charged the living tiki and leaped at it's open mouth. For his efforts, he was quickly swatted aside like a fly.

After grinding up the ground for a little, Alex flipped upright and looked over at Cortex and Crash. The scientist grit his teeth and fired his blaster at the tiki to no avail. Crash of course, had naught the arsenal to deal with this titanic tiki threat.

"Do something you mangy marsupial!" Cortex exclaimed as the tiki turned and swung two of it's fists back ready to blow him away. When the punches were thrown, Alex intercepted them with flames around his body in a crisp aura, holding them a few feet away from Cortex's face.

"Hey, supposed genius! Attack his innards!" Alex used all his strength to push the fists back, then with a clap of the hands he dragged some vines out of the ground to restrain the tiki's limbs. Even with the monster stationary, Cortex wagged his gun around and snarked "And just HOW are you expecting me to do this?"

Maybe someday the scientist will learn to not open his mouth, but for now Crash takes simplistic enjoyment out of grabbing the crystal Cortex was hanging onto and throwing him into the tiki's mouth. Immediately gagging on this vile man, the tiki broke free of the vines and grabbed it's neck, trying to choke the scientist out as he blasted away at his innards.

"H-Ha! Take that you stony freak! Say goodbye to your appendix, your intestines, and all these other gravely organs!" Cortex's voice echoed out of the tiki's mouth until he was spat onto the ground. The tiki tried to pound a screaming Cortex into paste, but was blocked by a wall of aura that curved from the pressure of the punch. Crash ran over and dragged Cortex by the collar of his shirt, and Alex looked over and saw Shina raising a wing and exhausting herself using her aura.

Once she collapsed, Alex remarked "Geez, fighting even in that state…" while sounding impressed and partially jealous. He then looked over and saw the Evil Twins were busy enjoying themselves, and appeared to be distraced. With a grin Alex rocketed over, swerving around the fists of the tiki until he was right in front of the birds. Victor held out a red cape and moved a foot to the left while swinging the cape up, throwing Alex into a zipper gap while Maurice shook some maracas and proclaimed "Ole!"

Alex ends up right in the path of a punch from all four of the tiki's fists, getting knocked right through the ground. However, this gives Crash enough time to throw Cortex into the tiki's mouth, where with another round of berserker bullets Cortex damages the creature's insides so much that it causes the purple aura to shatter and the tiki to collapse after letting out a bellowing moan and raising a hand for help.

Cortex crawled out of the mouth with a bright grin and his heart racing, and with his arms swinging down back and forth he proclaimed "That. Was. EXHILERATING!" He then looked at the Evil Twins and proclaimed "Send in a dozen more if you want, I'll take them all on!"

With a bored expression Victor responded "Well, you did fine I suppose. No matter though, you're still not going to stop us." Afterwards, Alex burst out of the ground and his fierce expression was dulled by the sulking tiki's presence. With his eyes widened he murmured "Oh you already won…" and then he flew over to Shina and picked her up. He held her in his arms and noticed she was snoring.

But that attentiveness went towards the birds when Victor started boasting "We already got our Vice-Versa Reversa Ray draining your precious island of all of it's good energy, and replacing it with pure concentrated EEEEEEEEEVIIIIIL!" Aku furiously said to the birds "You're out of your minds!"

"How can you say we're out of our minds? Maybe YOU'RE the one not thinking straight!" Victor blurted bitterly, but then he quickly pulled back and with a chuckle said "Actually, we just like causing havoc, so maybe we are a little nutty." A large zipper opens up behind them, but with a wave of his wing out Victory had one last thing to say.

"Oh yeah, since you still aren't giving Cortex up…" He fires another swift bolt at Shina, covering her in yet another puff of smoke as Alex flinches in surprise. When the smoke settles, he looked down and saw that Shina had gotten her body back. However, she was now seven inches tall. Her hands were cuddled against the side of her face and she was resting snugly. She looked as innocent as a pixie and just as vulnerable.

Without a thought, Alex pinched her shirt and put her in his right pocket so she'd be warm before looking at the Evil Twins. As they tauntingly waved the second artifact piece, the boy grit his teeth and said "I will get that from you, and I WILL turn her back to normal."

"Oh trust me human…The only way out of this will be when WE win." Victor said firmly before he flew into the zipper with his brother. After a brief pause, Alex walked over to Cortex, who was rubbing his hands in thought.

"Hehehehe…From the deep dark seas of my mind a whale of a plan is born!" Cortex said with his maddened giggling. Then with energy he hadn't used in a while he pointed northbound towards an icy island way out in the distance, proclaiming with determination "Quickly, to my iceberg lab! We haven't lost this battle yet!"

"When did you even have the time to make another lab?" Aku and Alex inquired, but Cortex swung his hand out and answered "Minor details. There's a boat on the coast we can use to get there."

With Cortex leading the way, the group crossed the rest of the island and ended up finding that very boat. There was just enough room to fit everyone without it capsizing, and an Indian ferryman was willing to take them to their destination. As the bountiful and cold seas stood before him at the bow of the ship, Alex thought _"The second artifact piece drops in front of those dumb birds and then that strange aura suddenly shows up again…This can't be a coincidence."_

Looking down as Shina hung snugly over the lip of his pocket and snored like the dickens, Alex murmured "I get the feeling you've gotten wrapped up in something bigger than you expected, Shina…" But as he looked towards the sea he couldn't shake this odd sensation gripping at the pit of his stomach "And why do I get the feeling I'm to blame…?"

 _Next Time: Cortex Isn't Good at his Job_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Cool Borders**

The trip across the Australian waters was longer than the group expected. Alex had stuck himself to the front of the native's large canoe, the now miniscule Shina still sleeping away in his pocket. Cortex had established a firm restraining line with a piece of chalk he happened to find, keeping the bandicoot at bay.

"And if you cross this Crash, you'll be in for a world of pain you cannot POSSIBLY imagine!" He said with gustso.

Crash immediately walked over with his goofy grin, and Cortex's face exploded into a canvas of pure red. Aku laughed with absolute jolliness while Alex looked back, a hint of jealousy coming from his sigh. For a moment, he was reminded of a certain flower.

Once he looked ahead, the titanic tin tower that was plainly described as Cortex's creation by the giant neon "N" on the front was much closer than before.

"I should try and remember what's next. Ice lab, then..." His ponderance was broken by a tiny yawn, forcing his attention towards his pockets as Shina stretches her toothpick sized arms up and looks around.

"Oh boy, I needed that!" She said blissfully. Once her skin touched the rippling denim she was surprised "Whaaaaa? Where did this come from? Is this...a pocket?"

When the rocky waters bumped her up she noticed she was on a surprisingly gigantic boat. Her lips caressed into ca smile "Coooool! We're on a giant boat!"

"Uhhh, Shina?" Alex's voice was booming, shaking the girl as she looked up and picked at an eardrum. Then with little fanfare she stared up and exclaimed "Alex! You finally became a giant! Good for you!"

"THAT'S the conclusion you jump to? Try again Shina." He remarked with a droll sigh. After examining herself a little more, she replied nonchalantly "Now that you mention it, I do feel a little lighter."

"You're just screwing with me, Aren't you?" Alex was blunt and expected the opposite response, thus finding surprise when she exclaimed "Maybe! I mean how am I supposed to know if I'm smaller or everything else is just suddenly bigger?"

"YOU JUST SAID YOU FEEL LIGHTER!" Alex's anger unleashed a hellfire of misty saliva upon Shina. With her clothes almost as drenched as if she had been in the pool, she shook her arms and muttered "Ew, gross!" Alex grimaced and reached down, using his powers in minimal capacity to dry her off.

"S-Sorry about that. How are you holding up?"

Shina sat on the lip of Alex's pocket and kicked her legs playfully "Well, anything's better than being a chicken. At least your pocket is warm and comfy."

"Well it helps my body can be a microwave at times." The attempt at humor was enough for Shina to start giggling. She looked down into the pocket and rubbed her chin "Though there was something...hard and lumpy down there."

"W-WHAT?!" Alex's face turned bright red and he looked away stuttering "N-Now wait a second! Don't go jumping to concl-"

"Oh! I see it now! It's this stone!" She hopped down to a roundish rock almost as big as her now. Alex quickly dug and suspended her out in front of his face while pinching her shirt.

"You can stay in the pocket, but you have to forget you saw that, ok?" Alex said in a tone both firm and panicked.

"You can't keep a girl away from secrets, it just makes them want to explore them MORE!" Shina waved a finger out playfully as Alex put her back in and murmured drolly "You've made that clear."

Shina hugged the edge of the pocket as the boat finally reached it's destination. With a wag of his finger Alex said "Just stay here until you're back to normal. I don't need you to be swatted like a fly."

"Even if you are as pesky as one sometimes..." He then grumbled low enough for only him to hear. Shina gave a swift salute and said "Aye aye cap-i-tan!" then settled on kicking her legs against Alex's pocket. Around this point Cortex walked on by with Crash behind him, grumbling in frustration.

"That took way too long. If I didn't know any better I'd say we were stuck on a loading screen." He then looked up at his incredible masterpiece and swung his hands outward, directing Crash's admittedly short attention span at it.

"Behold my masterpiece! The ice laboratory! This powerful tower, crafted after tirelessly hours of labor! ...From my mutants of course...Is just but a step in my grand plans of world conquest! In the hands of someone else it could do a lot of...good..." He ended his boast trying not to throw up while Crash patted his back. Cortex brushed him off and said "I'm not actually sick you dunce!"

After giving himself some space, Cortex waved his arm out and said "Come along!" then broke into a sprint up the snow covered hill towards the front of his lab. Crash and Alex went after him once they had surveyed the area.

While not was colorful as N. Sanity Island, this madman's base was filled with plenty of rich white snow across plenty of icy protrusions and platforms, with the occasional pine tree to break up the white monotony. When at the front of the lab, Cortex had taken out a remote control with a single button and said "Now, once we head inside we can find the contrapration necessary to combat those pesky parrots." Energetically he pushed the button, yet nothing happened. What a shock.

Not that this stopped him from trying...repeatedly. After a hundred presses in ten seconds flat Cortex bit his lower lip and threw the remote into the water, where it was eaten by a shark. With eyes bloodshot he turned his head around and glared at the others, who all whistled quietly until he calmed down with a chuckle.

"L-Lets just take the back way." He said, running off around the right of his base's, errrr...base. Alex looked up once he was out of range and said "I'll make an elevator out of ice. That'll get us there quickly."

"WAIT!" Shina blurted out in a panic, and Alex's heart nearly skipped a bit as he commented "What, what is it, what?!"

"Aaaaaaaalex? Where did you put that artifact piece we had?" Shina floated out of the pocket and got right up to his face. Her eyes were shut, arms were folded back, and despite her innocent tone her aura was projecting pure anger.

"You're the one who had it last Shina." Alex, unable to read the mood, tried playfully poking Shina, but she held up a hand and pinched tightly the tip of the finger while commenting "Oh? And I held it in what? My chicken fingers?"

Alex's nerves flared at that point and that in turn jolted his memory. He had been punched through the ground by Tiki-Tong, and then…

"…I-I'll be right back." Alex spun around and rocketed right back to N. Sanity Island, leaving only ripples in the water to acknowledge his parting presence. Shina spun around with a calmer attitude and said as Aku and Crash glared "Heheh…Alex has a hard time focusing, I swear."

Aku floated over and inquired "How are you feeling? I can't imagine this has been exciting for you…" With an acrobatic flip Shina proclaimed overflowing with joy "Are you kidding? This is fun fun FUN!"

Propping herself in front of the mask, Shina summoned forth some fairy wings with aura and fluttered them for a little before continuing "I can't wait to tell sis about all this! She'll be soooooo jealous!" The giggling after died down with a melancholy tone, and then she looked deep into the mask's eyes and said "…I can't believe the next artifact piece is possessed by those birds."

"You have my word that if Crash and I see a chance, we'll make sure to secure it." Aku smiled and nodded, lifting Shina's mood enough for her to manage a partially genuine smile.

"That means a lot." She said, cutting the conversation there as Alex whisked right back onto the scene. The stone was grasped tight and he held it up before stating "A-Alright…! NOW can we get back on track?"

Shina smiled and floated in place as Alex glared and told her "Pleeeease don't tell me you're going to keep those wings" while trying not to drag a hand down his face. Shina put them away and flew back into Alex's pocket.

"I'll stay here. It's comfy!" She patted the lip of the pocket and with a sigh Alex scratched the back of his head and blushed. While she wasn't focusing on, Shina closed her eyes and thought _"…Once again I'm powerless to help my sis. Alex…I'm counting on you too."_

Alex stretched his hands out and said "Now, about that elevator…" As snow flakes lifted up they just as quickly dropped upon Aku pointing out "Won't we need Cortex to open the lab's back door?"

With a flat expression the boy turned to the mask and raised his brows while frustratingly wiggling his lips as though he wanted to say "Really?" He turned to the right and tucked his hands into his back pockets before following the scientist's deep footsteps.

They ended up in a cave in a matter of seconds, the cold growing strong enough to draw Alex's breath and make Crash cuddle himself and shiver. Shina, however, took in the chill with a good sniff and a gasp of relaxation.

"Ah, feels like home!" As the group ended up in a tall cavern, they were greeted by the roar of a towering machine that automatically excavated ice from the walls and grinded it down for some unknown purposes. With a brow raised Shina continued jokingly "…Just with a lot more loud machines."

"There's no way Cortex climbed this himself." Alex said with a shake of his leaned back head, stopping only when he was about to lose balance.

"I wouldn't put it past Cortex to have installed a secret elevator somewhere." Aku said while looking around, and with one eye open Alex gestured beside his face and replied sarcastically "And yet he didn't install one outside his lab? Talk about skewed priorities…"

"Or an excuse to have another level!" Shina giggled. Alex pushed her down with a thumb and said with a clenched grin "If they need help breaking their fourth well, then they can ask you Shina. Be quiet otherwise."

When she popped back up she fixed her hair and said "I forgot the Fun Police sent their chief cop out. Well ya can't stop the fun!" Shina playfully shook her fist, but Alex responded by lowering his hand and turning some of the fibers in his pants into steel that he could stretch out as bars. Shina widened her eyes and upon noticing Alex's lack of attention shook her fist genuinely and said "Now ya're just being a grump!"

Alex just moved on with Aku and Crash, waiting until they were on of a hovering platform before hijacking control of it and sending it at the top. Moving at a brisk pace to not hurt Crash with the velocity, Alex hears a clang and looks to see Shina banging at the bars with an aura cup.

"Ya can hold me, but ya can't hold back the fun!" She said in a mock Mafioso voice.

"Just because you can't do anything doesn't mean you have to be annoying!" Alex's anger shook the poor girl, but she responded with a blunt "Ruuuuuuude!"

Then she pointed up and said nonchalantly "Also, there's an exploding suicidal penguin coming right at us." Alex looked up right as said grumpy penguin rammed into the platform and blew it up, sending the group flying across the room.

With a blank, defeated look in his eyes as he goes sliding along a conveyor and knocks away some trays Alex thought _"It's times like this I'd prefer to have Fawful throwing trees at me again…"_ Once he pulled himself up he checked his pocket and saw Shina had used aura to protect herself.

"…Thanks for the warning Shina." Alex quietly admitted, and Shina proclaimed "Just don't let it distract ya, it's harmless fun! Gotta make the most out of this tiny problem! I mean look at Crash!" Shina flipped a hand out from the gaps and Alex watched as Crash was already scaling the rest of the cavern without a care.

"I'm pretty sure the part of his brain that governs common sense is fried." His response left the girl groaning before she retreated into the pocket cell. Alex didn't even bother continuing the topic and leaped up to Crash's location at the end. After Alex apologized swiftly for the mistake, it didn't take long for them to find Cortex outside of the mountain they had just inadvertently traversed through. He was surrounded by more of those rocket pack penguins, and all of them looked angry.

"What do you mean the check bounced? Are you sure?" Cortex was in the middle of a conversation with the cobbling birds, a crystal under his right arm. The leader penguin pumped it's flippers before it's chest and Cortex had to reply "Well…Wrath of Cortex didn't do as well as we had hoped, but-"

The penguins were having none of those limp excuses and turned on the scientist with an aggressive stare. Cortex quickly pulled out his stiff trout and with a nervous grin inquired "Fish?" while the penguins stared at it. There was a quiet stare-off between the two forces for a while, with Crash grinning as he watched this unfold. It didn't take long though for the trout to be swapped out for Cortex's signature pistol. He fired upon the penguins with a frenzied expression, shooing them off.

"Huff, huff…Stupid birds." Cortex put his pistol away, but would once again be tormented by his bandicoot foe as Crash spun into and dragged him into a whirlwind that ended with the bandicoot once more tugging Cortex along by his crystal.

"No you wretched bandicoot! Let me go! Let me have just ONE crystal!" Crash dragged him along for a wild journey through ice covered metal platforms, pipes, and plenty of dangerous buzz saws and electric fences!

"Oh you have GOT to be kidding meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Cortex was thrown over an icy lake, where a plunge into it's chilling depths would've left him frozen once more. He prayed for a sweet release from this nightmare before he was instead smashed against a lever so a bridge was formed across the waters. Crash ran over to pick up his tool while Alex and Aku caught up.

Shina somehow slipped between the pocket bars and stood atop them, proclaiming to Cortex "Ya know, this is what you get for making all these death traps!" He looked back and said "Like I ever expected to traverse them! I'm more…final boss material."

In keeping with his so-called "final boss material", Cortex kept being an utter joke as Crash once more threw him around like a shot-put to advance through the ice. Alex only kept this going out of an admittedly cruel feeling of humor towards the scientist's misery, while Shina felt pity yet could do nothing in her state.

After dealing with this for a bit, they ended up in another part of the mountain, where an ice wall was in the way. However, there appeared to be something lodged in the center of this wall. Another mask, which looked eviler than Aku Aku thanks to it's black wood and flaming colored eyebrows. Crash was midway through lifting Cortex for a throw when both the scientist and Aku noticed this mask.

"Crash, WAIT!" Aku said in a panic, but it was too late. The ice shattered, Cortex dropping against a cold cliff alongside the new mask. Crash leaped into the chilly room as the mask immediately rose up and with a deeply overjoyed voice he proclaimed "Finally, free at last! AGAIN!"

Cortex looked up with a mortified expression and stuttered "M-Mighty Uka-Uka…!" as the mask glared at his company and said calmly at first "What's this? Crash AND Cortex?" before breaking into an enraged "I don't know whether to kiss you, or KILL YOU!"

Crash puckered his lips and closed his eyes, and Uka Uka tried to fry him with an energy blast. The bandicoot and Cortex leaped down to the platform just in time, while the mask then takes the ice he was stuck in and converts it into a body. With thick arms and a tall, rigid right shoulder Uka placed himself on the front of the body and leaped down onto the platform to fight Crash AND Cortex…

 _Next Time: The Power of the Evil Twins_


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: A Crystal Hunt**

Aku and Alex stand on the hole where Uka-Uka was once frozen in place, watching as Crash and Cortex was trying their best to battle the malicious mask in his new ice body. Aku shook and murmured in fear "My brother is free…again!"

Alex looked to him and said in a puzzled tone "Dunno why you're concerned" while brushing his right hand out at Uka to throw a fireball. The amount of nonchalance in that gesture was astoundingly insulting towards the once feared evil mask. The ice body melted down to a steamy puddle as Uka looked around in a state of sheer confusion.

"What is the meaning of this? Who DARES to challenge the mighty Uka-Uka NOW?!" His voice was coarse with frustration until he gazed upon Alex as he glided onto the platform. Then, a dry gasp emerged from his cracked lips.

"Y-You?! This was the last thing I needed to deal with!" The mask widened his eyes and shook. That is, at least as much as a floating mask could anyways. Shina perked up out of the pocket and said "Wow Alex, even he knows who you are!"

"Of course he does, considering Aku did…" Alex went up to Uka-Uka and looked at him for a few seconds. The mask shook some more until he got a deep enough look into those eyes, which led to a chuckle of relief.

"Ha…! You're not him, you're just his PUNY successor!" Uka floated before Alex's face and glared at him with a grin and a condescending stare. Alex had plenty of rebuttals to choose from, but it was Cortex who trotted up and said first "Oh PLEASE you outdated old mask. That kid just beat you in ten seconds flat. You're weak and pathetic."

Uka immediately flew over and pressed against Cortex's face, overwhelming him with his rage "Don't give me that you imbecile! You were just seconds away from wetting yourself like the sad baby you are!" Cortex bit his lower lip and held his hands up before backing away. The mask did not let up and glanced back at the others to say "And look at you! Why are you working with that idiot brother of mine, that wretched bandicoot, that boy, and his pocket midget girl?!"

"W-Well you see…There's a long and well…f-funny story about that…" Cortex tried to avoid Uka-Uka's gaze by glancing around, using some hand gestures in tune to his words as he tried to stall the subject.

"Well? Go on Cortex…HUMOR ME!" Uka stretched out and his voice got scratchier from rage. Cortex meekly stepped back, but before the evil mask could get at him again Aku floated between them and proclaimed "Enough, brother!"

"Ohohoho! So you want to settle this masko-a-masko, huh brother?!" Uka chuckled arrogantly, but Aku shook his body and explained peacefully "An evil far greater than even yours threatens to destroy our world."

This news brought Uka-Uka to express sheer disbelief as he backed off "NOOOOOO! That's MY job! How dare they!" Aku approached his brother and without either hatred or disdain for the past in his voice offered "We may have had our differences, but if we were to combine our powers…Maybe we could defeat them."

Uka raised his brows and thought on this with a hum. His answer was quite surprising to those around "An alliance? I LIKE the sound of that." This brought a smile to Aku's face, and the two masks floated back-to-back and spun around with mythical energies surrounding them. Even Alex stood agape at the power they mustered up, which reminded him of the Star Spirits.

"The Uka-Aku brothers…Reunited at last!" Aku said in glee as the two masks flew off farther into the tunnel to go find and confront the Evil Twins. They seemed to have forgotten that they had NO idea where those birds were.

Cortex rolled his eyes and with tongue sticking out murmured "Oh please…Somebody GAG me!" Crash got in front of the scientist and then dug his hand into the scientist's mouth. After a muffled gag, Cortex pulled back and spat some orange fur out. He was half-tempted to point his gun at the bandicoot, but Alex raising his brows stopped that.

"Grrhh…Well if we're done here, my lab is just around the corner. Ten Wumpa Fruits says those idiots won't last five seconds against the birds." Cortex gave a disgruntled wave of the hand and slowly moved onward until Crash ran up and grabbed onto the crystal he had to force him along. Alex, against his will, had to keep up with their pace as they dealt with platforms and the like.

At least Shina was there to keep him company. Though it really spoke volumes of the circumstances at hand that SHE was the more tolerant one to deal with. Looking down after a sigh, he saw her swinging her teetering her head left and right while leaning on the edge of his pocket.

"Something on your mind?" He asked without thinking ahead. Shina perked up and stated "I was just thinking about Uka-Uka's imprisonment. I mean, by all accounts he really shouldn't be alive right now."

"I'm probably going to regret asking this, but why…?" Alex folded his arms and listened in as Shina hastily explained "Well, when water gets really cold the molecules expand as it crystallizes into a frozen state, so with all the cracks in Uka-Uka's body he should've been nuthin' but splinters when you broke him free. I guess his magical mumbo-jumbo triumphed over hard sci-"

"NEEEEEEEEEEEERD!" Alex blurted out in frustration. With a confused stutter Shina looked up at him "W-Wha?" as he rubbed his forehead with a couple fingers and groaned. This coupled with the earlier inquiry got Shina to respond with "Ya know, you DID ask" while having an aloof chuckle.

"I-I wasn't expecting scientific theory, alright? That's more up Cortex's alley, not y-y-y…" Alex looked away but Shina simply closed her eyes and said "You're looking for 'you', right? Even so, I'd just pull out the classic 'don't judge a book by it's cover' metaphor!" Her tone carried a little more maturity than usual, yet ended with a giggle showing how little the hesitation hurt to hear.

Alex brought a finger down and ruffled her hair as he replied with a blush in his cheeks "W-Well you could stand to open those pages more often then!" As Shina made a comb of aura and got to brushing she said in a chipper tone "But it's not fun to read alone! If only there was another book to read…"

"Hmph, well I'm sorry to say my book's locked for a reason. It's akin to a girl's secret diary, I'm sure you'd understand." Alex took up a snide tone yet Shina was quickly to waggle a finger at him while continuing to brush "That's pretty stereotypical Alex. I prefer to be open with others about myself, so there's no need for a diary!"

"Fine, you aren't a diary, but I am, so-"

"Quit your ridiculous book metaphors already! We're finally here!" Cortex exclaimed, snapping the two from their discussion. They both looked back and saw that they had left behind a series of platforms without realizing it, the mountain now far in the distance and the ground way, WAY below their current position.

Having ended up at the top of Cortex's lab, they turn and find the scientist reaching into his pocket. "Now where did I leave those keys…Grrr, hopefully I didn't leave them with N. Gin. We might have to make a detour to find-" With a solid burst of speed that nearly threw Shina out of his pocket, Alex kicked the door down with the heel of his shoe. The bent door banged against the walls of the corridor until it jiggled on the ground, electricity sparking out from the frame as Cortex slowly pulled a set of keys from his coat.

Him and Crash looked up at Alex, the scientist saying nonchalantly "You know I'm sending you a bill for that." Alex grinned and replied "My address will be PO Box Depths of Space" smugly.

"Hmph, smart-aleck." Cortex moved on ahead to the next door, swerving back and holding his hand up with a firm glare at Alex. He then put the keys in the lock and said with his mad scientist flair "We're just a couple rooms away from my greatest creation! You will revel in awe, quake in fear and delight, as I show you my-"

The doors swing open and Cortex is immediately blown back by a powerful shockwave from a clash going on within. Alex and Crash peered past the frame and saw an incredible clash unfold. On one side of the room, Aku-Aku and Uka-Uka were side-by-side as they launched beams of rainbow energy so bright they bathed the room in white light.

The "victim's" of their almighty power were the Evil Twins, who just lounged on a pair of floating beach towels and held sun mirrors under their helmet. The light gave them a good tan, and Victor remarked "This is pretty nice, ain't it Maurice?"

"Yeah! Pass me the gummy worms Victor!" Maurice got a bucket of gummy worms and deposited them into his helmet, chomping at them like he was a buzz saw grinding down wood. Aku and Uka strained themselves, but the good brother kept on with motivation "Push brother! We cannot lose this advantage!"

"I just got unstuck from a block of ice, I'm giving it everything I got!" Uka screamed, using that same rage to fuel his power. Victor lifted his head up and said "Hey hey keep it down over there! Buncha stiffs ruining our vacation time Maurice."

"Their performance is rather wooden isn't it? Heh!"

"For once I agree with you! So why don't we make better use of their talents?" Victor then shot a wing forward at the masks, and instantly their energy vanished and with sparkles surrounding them the brothers went stiff and started to drop. Floating over on their platforms, the Evil Twins pick up the masks and hold them before their faces.

"Look, now we got a nice pair of party masks!" Maurice joyously said. Victor's ensuing laughter went from joyous to mocking as the birds turned and threw the masks at the ground. Cortex reached into his pocket and silently handed Crash a Wumpa Fruit with a "10" written on it in ink while Victory pointed at him and exclaimed "Fools! What hope did you think a pair of masks would have against us? We are masters of the infinite dimensions, with control over reality itself!"

"And yet you can't even stop a bandicoot and a fourteen year-old boy. Good works birdbrains." Alex smiled and mocked, and with face red with anger Victor's beak dug into his chin. Maurice had to speak up for him by saying "Haha! But do YOU have infinite riches stored within YOUR Tenth Dimensional Fortress? I don't think so!" Cortex's eyes then lit up, his mouth salivating like a child going into a candy store for the first time.

"R-Riches?" As he's drawn into a trance of greed, Victor snapped out of his rage and slapped Maurice across the helmet.

"Again with the riches! Why must you always bring up the riches?!"

"See previous comment." Alex whispered with snark, and Victor rushe up to his face and exclaimed "Don't you talk back to me Mr. Thin Ice! I will BREAK you!" With a smug smile, Alex let out a breath of frost that on Victor's helmet, then put a smiley face onto it with a finger. With rage stronger than any hissy fit Alex saw from Joe Dark, Victor's helmet melted and he's yanked back by his brother. After some silence Victor coughed and tried to regain composure.

"Soo…You don't remember us, do you doctor?"

Cortex raised his brows and asked "Should I?" Victor then pointed at him and exclaimed "YOU ruined our lives! So allow us to return the favor. Now, you got two choices. You can either come with us willingly. Or…" He gestured out to Alex.

"The boy can force you to come with us. Surely you're tired of this ego-maniac's existence by now, aren't you?"

The question got Alex to tap his chin and say "Well you are making a good case for yourselves…" only for Shina to blurt out "Alex no!" He then shrugged and summoned forth his blade, pointing it at the birds and saying "But you also have something we need, so if revenge against Cortex is so valuable to you…Then you can hand the artifact over along with turning Shina back."

"What is WRONG with you? Who taught you how to answer many choice questions?! Fine, I guess you just need another reminder of what you're dealing with!" Victor swung his wing out at Shina, who felt funny as she's consumed by a puff of smoke. Swiftly, Alex felt a weight on his back and collapsed onto the ground, pressed down by a firm rear.

Victor then pointed at Cortex and exclaimed "See how many lives you ruin with your mere existence?! A curse upon you, a curse upon the bandicoot, a curse upon YOU ALL!" Fuming from every orifice, Victor turned around and kicked open a slick steel door he just summoned, opening the way to a strange space that he flies swiftly into. Maurice followed, stopping to say "Oh and uhhh…Forget I said anything about a treasure!" before shutting the door and crunching it down into nothingness.

Alex and Shina were out for a little bit from what happened, and the departure of the Evil Twins gave the mask autonomy again. Right away, Aku confronted the confused Cortex and cast aside his usual calmness for a demanding tone "Dr. Cortex…What have you done?" Uka followed on this with bitter rage "Who are these evil upstarts?!"

Cortex stiffened and turned around, his expression a mixture of confusion and fear as Uka edged closer. "I-I've ruined so many lives…It's hard to keep track of them all." Uka kept advancing, forcing the scientist back with fiercer nudges as he taunted him "Such a big head…for such a tiny brain!"

"I am starting to see merit in giving Cortex up to the twins. Perhaps they will spare us in exchange." Aku said, and as his heart stopped momentarily Cortex squeaked "T-They'll kill me!"

"That's a risk I'M willing to take!" Uka was without hesitation in his tone, and the two masks converged upon Cortex. In his most desperate moments, the scientist turned to Crash behind him and held his hands together, begging him "Please Crash! I've been like a father to you! I created you, nursed you…Errr, tried to destroy you…Would you truly want to give me up to the enemy after all the good times we had?"

With a goofy grin, Crash's mind went through a 'film reel' of all the times he had spun Cortex around. It was a short reminder as the bandicoot gave a thumbs up to the doctor, giving Cortex a reason to let out sigh of relief. Then another voice spoke out in defense of the doctor.

"The Evil Twins are going to destroy N. Sanity Island even if we give Cortex up. He's our chance to get to where they are at and stop them. Ya can't let anger get the better of ya!"

By this point Alex recovered from that brief blow to his back, yet as pushed himself off the voice he heard sounded off. The choice of words was most certainly what Shina would use, but the tone was more akin to an adolescent…male.

Quickly looking up, Alex saw that while Shina had returned to normal size, "her" gender had not successfully made the trip back. Now HIS hair was short, barely past the chin, and it was darker in color. He had a few dots of acne on his cheeks, and his figure was slimmer yet with a bit more muscle on the arms and legs.

"Shina" had thankfully stood by the time a panicking Alex scrambled onto his feet and looked him in the eyes. He right away noticed that he was a few inches shorter now, and that his clothes had adjusted to fit his new body. Upon glancing at the changed "Shina", Alex found it odd that he was not too shocked by this, but rather that he started to feel relaxed looking into "Shina's" eyes for once.

The grin he gave was undoubtedly unchanged though. The Evil Twins couldn't take that away from the identity of Shina Aurora, that's for sure.

"So guess this book's got different contents now." He said in a slightly surfer dude-esque tone. Cortex ruined the scene, per usual, by exclaiming "Stop forcing that to work! We don't have time for metaphors when the world's at stake!"

For once, Cortex dragged Crash along further into the lab, Uka-Uka grumbling secret plans to hurt Cortex dozens of ways for this nonsense while Aku sighed and floated over to "Shina".

"My apologies Shina. I wish I could've stopped the Evil Twins before they changed you again."

With a grin "Shina" replied "Aw don't worry about it man. If I can't get turned back, then I'm sure sis will be SOOOO excited to have a big bro!" He clapped his hands and grinned, but Alex put his foot down and exclaimed "Stop taking this so lightly!"

"Dude, chill…" Was the response he got as "Shina" held his hand up and drew forth his rapier, giving it a swing and proclaiming "Least now I can fight again!"

With a docile glance and a fold of his arms, Alex murmured tolerantly "Well alright. Lets go catch up with Crash. No doubt Cortex's already flubbed our next move…" The three of them move on through the lab, but before they enter the next room "Shina" had something to say.

"I think you should call me 'Shinster' while I'm like this." He said with the utmost seriousness as he dug into his pockets and appeared to have trouble keeping his legs from wobbling. He made a few grunts and tried to steady himself while Alex glanced back and asked "Why that name?"

"It's a nickname my friends at school like to call me by." The explanation was short, but Alex gestured back and replied "I think 'Shin' would be better, if you ask me. It's short and to the point."

"Oh ok! Shin it is!" Shin exclaimed in bliss. Alex lingered on a stare at Shin's smile and her words before turning away and thinking "Friends at school…" A bitter and quiet 'tsk' followed, swallowed out by the sounds of the metal door opening. Inside the next room, there was a machine with four gargantuan limbs spinning and weaving together a mass of blue quantum energy into a gravitational force in the center of this well-built device.

Crash had gotten entranced with the energy and stared at it without moving. Uka-Uka, meanwhile, was hovering over Cortex on a nearby console. The scientist had his face planted firmly onto the keyboard and looked slightly distraught.

"What's going on?" Shin asked. Uka's reply was one of frustration "The moron says we don't have enough Power Crystals to fuel his Psychotron!"

Cortex lifted his head up and said "Well Crash already used seventy-five others to foil our plans! They aren't items you can find at the bargain store!"

"And WHOSE fault is that?! If you don't figure out where we can find two more crystals, so help me Cortex!" Uka pressed against the scientist's cranium. This did seem to spark Cortex's brain a little, as he raised a finger up and stuttering "I-I got an idea! Follow me, I know where we can find two more Crystals!"

Without thought he sprinted off to a door on the right, opening a door to the outside of the lab. The others follow him out as he rounded the eastern part of the platform and went onto a lift that barely fit everyone involved. They went up to a cave at the top of the left mountain, and in there was a metallic room that looked like it belonged in the lab. To the left of the entrance was a beautiful view of the subarctic seas. Cortex leaned out over the railing and gestured towards a freight boat.

"Look! Our salvation lies amongst the briny blue! We need to get to N. Gin's battleship before it takes off, but how…? Think Cortex, think!" As the scientist punched his forehead for an answer to pop out, Crash stood behind him with a curious expression as he stared at the scientist's backside. As that wiggled in his line of sight, Crash slowly slid and ultimately punted Cortex right off the railing, jumping off and landing right on his back.

Thus, the Cortex Snowboard was born screaming, and as his face dug through the snow Crash took him through the alpine tunnel with a massive grin on his face. From the top of the incline Uka-Uka smiled and said "For once, I like the bandicoot's idea!" and flew quickly after so he could relish in Cortex's pain. Alex sighed and said "Well I guess we could just fly do-"

"Last one to the bottom has to tell another secret, dude!" Shin threw himself off the ledge and made a snowboard of aura, immediately taking off on the slopes when she landed.

"H-Hey!" Alex held a hand up and after a wiggle of the shoulders accepted that she might be serious and pulled a steel plate from the ground as he leaped past the railing and stuck the plate to his magnetized feet. Throwing his hands back, he released some flames from the palms to boost ahead, soon catching up with Shina.

"Sorry, but you're not going to win this one." Alex boasted. The both of them soon caught up to Cortex as he's forced to have his crotch grind against a cold metal rail. His screams of pain drowned out the ensuing conversation between Alex and Shin.

"Huh?! What did you say?!"

"What?!"

"I said…'What did you say?!'"

"What?!"

"I said…'I said…'What did you say?!''"  
By the time they got past the rail, Cortex was just squealing weakly as his face went back to eating snowflakes. With a shake of his head Alex looked forward and sped ahead "Never mind, you're going to lose this Shina!" He released a massive boost of fire to rocket far ahead, Shin scratching the side of his face and murmuring "I thought we were going with Shin for now, dude…"

He then licked his lips and put rockets on the back of his snowboard, firing off streams of sparkling aura to move even faster. As Crash launches Cortex off a sharp hill, a bunch of penguins fire their rocket packs off and begin their pursuit of the scientist. Uka-Uka, who had occupied himself on the back of Cortex's head, turned around and proclaimed "Why are your own minions after us?!"

Between the pain, Cortex whispered "I-I might have stiffed them on a paycheck…or two." Uka turned around and proclaimed into his ear "And yet you managed to conjure up ANOTHER worthless laboratory!"

Crash jerked Cortex around left and right to dodge the penguins. When they blew up upon crashing into some Nitro crates, it created massive explosions.

"AAAH! You're out of your mind bandicoot!" Cortex cried as he JUST survived each blast. Uka thrust himself many times at the two and proclaimed "No keep at it! Wipe the both of you out!"

With their momentum picking up, they somehow caught up to Alex and Shina right as they run into an out-of-place wooden building called the "Moulin Cortex". Above the door was a neon sign displaying Cortex tipping his hat to a tall, well-dressed female bandicoot. As everyone entered, a cacophony of female screams broke out. During those screams, Alex, Shin and Cortex stumbled to explain themselves.

"Coming through!" Said Cortex.

"I-I think I'm too young for this…" Followed Alex.

"I LOOOOVE your skin complexion!" Shin proclaimed after.

"Are THOSE real?!" Cortex stammered in awe.

"I-I will NOT call you mother!" Alex exclaimed with a meek shrill to his voice.

"It's ok everyone, I was a girl myself not too long ago!" Shin said, staying calm.

"WHAT IS THIS?!" A shrill elderly voice called out, and Cortex squeaked in fear "M-Mother?"

Then the group shot out of the other side of the building in stunned silence. Alex, Shin and Cortex were blushing while Crash had a wide grin despite a pair of bloomers in his eyes. Once the wind kicked that away, Alex spoke up "L-Lets just forget that happened" and rubbed the side of his face.

"Y-Yes…Weren't we after something importaaaaaaaaaaaaanNNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTT?!" Cortex's crotch scraped against another frozen rail. Fortune favored them this time as Crash managed to pick up a Crystal that was just floating there along the way.

Meanwhile Alex and Shin continued their race without another word as Cortex was steaming from this constant humiliation.

He exclaimed "That's it bandicoot!" and turned around, grabbing Crash by the chest fur and dragging him down to wail at him. The flurry of violent blows this time dragged in the snow and turned them into a steadily growing snowball. The snowball kicked up speed so rapidly and dragged in all manners of crates, penguins, and eventually cast it's shadow upon Alex and Shin as they were neck-and-neck.

They turned around just in time to get consumed into the rolling mass of fluffy white snow. Soon enough they're thrown off the end of the slope and crashing down onto a lone hut. This breaks everyone free, with Cortex now planted deep into the snow. With a muffled breath he says "Y-You know what…? I-I'm just going to lie here and cry…"

He breathes a deep sigh and murmured "No amount of treasure is worth this pain…" Then he was silent. Picking themselves up, Alex and Shin look at each and ask "Want to call it a tie?" They blinked and looked away, glancing over their shoulder and continuing "Yeah that sounds good" while pointing at each other.

Alex is the one who changes subjects by looking at the freighter close by. Pointing at it, he stuttered "L-Lets get the other crystal. This shouldn't take too long…" The group began to advance for the ship, behind them the debris of the house trembling before Dingodile emerged out of it.

He cocked his flamethrower and a grin went wide on his face. As a slight purple aura appeared around his body and his eyes went red, he remarked "Treasure eh? Now ain't that swell…?"

 _Next Time: The Master of Time and Space_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: High Sea Hijinx**

Moving onward to N. Gin's battleship, Shin felt a strange presence momentarily and looked back, his hum grabbing Alex's attention enough to turn him around. The others stopped to look at him too.

"What's going on now Shina…Err, Shin?" Alex threw a gesture as Shina tapped his chin in thought.

"Dunno bro, I thought I sensed something odd back there." The presence faded out in a blink of the eye, and after a shake Shin turned around and asked calmly "Hey, Alex. I almost forgot to ask back when I was a chicken."

Uka looked to his brother and let out a flat "What?" only for Aku to shake his head, trying to dodge an explanation. Shin waved a hand out and leaned femininely as Alex listened patiently.

"Don'tcha you find it strange we didn't encounter that strange aura until after the birds showed up with an artifact piece?"

"So you're wanting to change your theory from 'Towa and Mira did it' to 'The artifact is responsible'?" Alex inquired with a suspecting raise of his eyebrows. With a shake of the head he said "I don't believe that. You and I have touched the artifact and nothing happened."

Shin pulled the stone out that was barely stuck in the back of his pants and juggled it a little. "Well, you're not wrong dude…" Then he looked up at the others, with Uka-Uka in particularly glaring at his brother and exclaiming "I want an explanation for this later!"

"I don't even understand myself, brother…" Aku lamented with a sigh. Clenching the stone, Shin swung his arm out and threw it at Uka-Uka. With a sound smack to his body, the evil mask grunts and is then dragged to the ground, the stone planted on his back.

Shin walked over and tapped a foot on the ground until Uka shot up in a rage, exclaiming as he got right in Shin's unfazed face "What is the meaning of this?!"

Just tapping his chin with a puckered lip, Shin spoke without regard to the mask's presence "Oh ok, so I was wrong there." Even as Uka pressed his splintered form against his cheek, Shina looked back at Crash and asked "Could you pick this up? Gotta try just one more thing."

The bandicoot sprinted over as Uka yelled "You can't ignore me forever!" Shin's response was to gently raise an arm and poke the mask aside. He watched as Crash picked the artifact up and, in his adrift fashion, bit into it. The bandicoot's body shook and he let go, a bit of saliva now in the grooves. Shin pinched the artifact between two fingers with a hesitant smirk and shook it clean before putting it away.

"Oooookay…So I was completely wrong. I thought the artifact would just react to non-Aurians." Shin turned, getting a blunt response from Alex of "You would've known that when I touched it before."

"I just thought you're powerful enough to resist whatever it's doing. It's a moot point anyways." Shin shrugged, followed by his expression flinching as Uka rammed the side of his head to get before his line of sight.

"And for your experiments you had to assault me?!" There was a fire in the mask's eyes that could burn a forest if let loose, yet Shin held hands beside his shoulders and said aloofly "Dude, you're still a mask of pure concentrated evil, why should I treat you nicely?"

"You're fine treating that IDIOT Cortex like an ally!" Uka exclaimed, getting an immediate response from Shin in the form of a pretty blunt "Yeah, but he's actually doing something. No offense to Aku in particular dude, but you two jobbed pretty hard to the Evil Twins."

"T-They surprised me…! Next time, there will be no humiliation!" Uka tried to save face, but Alex countered his words in a defensive tone "Oh please, you call that humiliation? You just got stiff for a bit. Shina's been turned into a chicken, shrunken, and had her gender switched."

"Uhh I've not really had that much of a problem so far Alex…" Shin murmured as the boy went on to press his fingers ready for a snap pointed at Uka, telling him with some fierceness "Personally, you'd better hope we don't get cold, cause I'm looking at a fine piece of firewood right now."

The evil mask rescinded his rage when faced with the fire in Alex's eyes. With a dainty chuckle, Uka spoke "Well played boy. You know, you'd make a far better henchman than Cortex ever d-"

Forcibly shivering, Alex gave a sarcastic "Ooooh boy it's really chilly out" as he widened his eyes and started budging his pressed fingers. Uka backed off and said calmly "Perhaps we can iron out a contract later. Weren't we supposed to be finding a Power Crystal?"

Alex lowered his hand and nodded, the two masks and Crash moving on ahead to the ship right after. Shin lightly punched the boy on the shoulder as he passed and said "Thanks for the defense dud."

He gave him a passing glance and said as they moved on "Think nothing of it. You brought up a good point about the artifact though. If nothing else, it has SOME connection to that strange aura, even if it's not what we think it's doing. Remember what happened with the Sorceress?"

"So someone's messing with us then?" Shin asked with a somewhat perturbed tone. Biting his lower lip into a tense scowl, Alex muttered "I didn't mention it back on the boat, but you know what bugged me about what the Evil Twins said?"

"What?"

"They said the artifact piece just 'dropped' in front of them. Doesn't that come across as just a LITTLE fishy?" Alex turned with brows raised, his expression also now perturbed.

"Well, DUH!" Shin made light of the matter yet quickly mentioned "Though whoever's doing this must still want us to get the pieces, otherwise they'd already be off-world."

"So you're suggesting a test?"

"The whole point of this IS to find the lost Cosmos Drive. I'd be surprised if there wasn't some testing involved. Luckily for us, I'm an A+ student!" Shin pounded his chest with a proud raise of his head. Alex sighed and with a shrug responded "If only it was as easy as filling out a written test."

"I don't know, you seem to be pretty bad at multiple choice questions." Shin poked Alex in the back and swiftly retracted as he looked back with a flustered glare.

"Y-You know what…?" Alex stared ahead and murmured "…Never mind" as they reach the entrance to the ship. Then, he glances up and to the left and comments "Without Cortex weighing us down, I can get us to N. Gin pretty quick."

"The sooner we get that crystal, the sooner we can make those birds pay!" Uka exclaimed. Alex sighed and held his hands out, ripping up a thin plate of ice and carrying the group towards a metal ring hovering above the bow. To Alex's surprise, it had no one on it.

"W-What? But he's suppos-" He looked back at the group as they collectively raised their brows, stuttering to save face "I-I mean…I could've sworn I sensed him up here. Guess he's still in the ship."

After they dropped off on the platform, Alex melted the ice and cracked his knuckles out. He pushed his palms out as he focused on the roof of the ship. With a screeching, echoing creak he pulled up the roof like it was a can of sardines, leaving bare every last detail of N. Gin's ship. The hundreds of big bipedal Walruses he had in there all stared up in confusion, including the naked ones who were slapping each other with towels.

"What is going on here?!" The cries of the ship's captain were barely heard from the center of the ship. Peering off the platform, Alex saw the stout N. Gin thrusting his fist into the air as he stood at the top of a half-ripped staircase.

Shin went to the edge and waved out, exclaiming down "Excuse me Mr. N. Gin dude, can you come up here?! We need to talk about something REAAAAL important!"

"After you ripped off the top of my ship?!" The missile on N. Gin's head steamed, and Alex proclaimed nonchalantly "I'll-" "N. GIN YOU WORTHLESS TWIT! THE FATE OF THE WORLD I WANT TO DOMINATE AND MY EGO RESTS ON YOU ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING FOR ONCE IN YOUR MISERABLE LIFE!" Uka interrupted screaming like a maniac.

N. Gin retreated a step and stated "U-U-Uka-Uka…?! Y-You're free?!" with fear crawling at his spine. He didn't say another word, and activated a jetpack that carried him up to the platform the others were on. Making good on what he wanted to say, Alex slammed the roof of the ship down to seal it up.

The missile wearing madman stood on a tiny platform suspended above the center of the ring by wooden stakes. With an apathetic expression he asked "So what do you want?" Aku took the lead by floating up to N. Gin and asking "We need a Crystal to power Cortex's Psychotron."

With a shrug N. Gin replied "Oh, THAT thing. Yes, the invention I had to spend three months working on non-stop without any pay. And that was AFTER I had to build an entire laboratory on this island, without pay. And before even THAT I had to build a mechanized version of THAT wretched bandicoot….WITHOUT PAY!" He brandished a finger down after he's done, with Shin having something to say right after.

"You should try and contact the Villains' Union for neglected pay."

"…Or, better idea!" N. Gin rubbed his hands together with a smirk on his face before continuing "If you bring me enough money to compensate for the work Cortex put me through lately, I will hand over my crystal."

Alex stepped forth, holding his hands out and taking a page out of Shina's book by dramatically speaking "I can offer you a King's Ransom if you so desire. I can turn the seas into a vast swimming pool of gold, making islands become paradises of wealth. Statues will get erected in your name, shinier than even the sun at it's brightest!"

"While your attempt at humor is laughable at best, I am being serious. I want actual gold, not some imitation!" N. Gin scoffed and waved a hand out. After a pause, Alex swung his arm out and drew his sword, quickly stating "So much for negotiations."

Defensively swerving back, N. Gin pulled out the crystal in one hand and a pulsing TNT Crate in the other. "Back off! If you get close to me, I will destro-" He stopped when he smelled and heard the crackling of fire around him. Looking around, N. Gin saw that his supports were now ashes, and once suspended for a bit the tiny platform plummeted down with him following soon after. Though not before he threw up both the TNT and the Crystal, the second of which Crash caught.

With a dispel of his blade, Alex folded his arms and commented "Well that was ea-" He lifted his head up just to get smashed in the face by the TNT he neglected. It let off an explosion so massive it destroyed the whole platform and sent the group crashing down into the ship. They puncture the roof and end up in a hallway with little light, giving it a creepy bloody hue, the only sound being the slight pitter of droplets.

Having protected himself with aura, Shin was the first to get up, followed by Crash and the two masks. Alex gets knocked out for a bit though, lying flat in front of a big iron door. As Shin began a trot, an echoing pound came from the door, followed by another. The group kept cautious until the door flung open, forcing Shin to leap back and dodge out of the way. Emerging from the room behind was a big blue walrus wearing a chef's hat and red apron.

Raising his flippers, the walrus looked at the others and licked his tusks before saying sloppily "Oh boy! Fresh meat for my pot!" He then bent down and, as they woke up, the walrus picked Alex up by the legs and swung him so high that he was briefly knocked out again upon hitting the ceiling. He spun Alex around like a club and started running after the others as they turned tail and sprinted down the hallway.

The walrus rammed through TNT and Nitro crates unfazed, taking the occasional swing at the others with his stupid club. Shin and Crash leaped over each swing, with Uka exclaiming along the way "Can't you just fight back?!"

"What, and hit Alex dude? We'll be fine if we keep running!" Shin ran backwards for a little bit and softly lipped an apology to her friend, who really, REALLY did not deserve this. Not long after, Alex woke up mid-swing, hearing the walrus exclaim "Come back here yummy meat!" Quickly realizing and accepting his predicament, he let out a sigh.

When his pursuits weren't proving effective, the walrus threw Alex like a boomerang at the others. Shin turned around and caught him, using a backflip to kill any momentum followed by a swift kick to an iron door to seal off the walrus' pursuit. It pounded on the door, but this one was too locked to budge.

Now that they were safe from getting cannibalized, Shin turned around and let Alex down. He rubbed the back of his still throbbing head and remarked "That hallway was way too long for this ship…" He looked up as Shin grinned and said "…Thanks for catching me."

"You're welcome! Now that we got the crystal, lets get back to the lab!" Shin replied with a clap of the hands as they emerged from the front of the ship. Their movements turned to caution though as they were now next to an absurdly large field of TNT crates.

Crash's eyes widened and he backed up, thrusting his hands slowly out. Alex shook his head and commented "N. Gin had to have fallen already, we won't have to worry abo-" Right then, the madman dropped head first onto one of the TNT Crates. Everyone widened their eyes sans Alex, who closed his and with arms folded broke into a grumble. As the countdown went down quickly starting from three, Alex only had one thing to say.

"Fu-"

The rest gets cut off by the incredibly, ludicrously big explosion that occurred. The front of the ship gets taken out as the group gets flung through the air, plummeting swiftly in an arc towards a large, lone piece of ice on the sea. While Shin and Crash screamed in delight, the masks were a little worried, and Alex was completely indifferent even as he smacked face-first onto the ice.

If nothing else, at least they landed safely…In one sense of the word anyways. Shin and Crash lifted their heads up to find two people already waiting for them here. One was an incredibly tall man wearing a silver and gold armor with a clock motif, including a twisted clock on his chest and pistons on his back. He patiently folded his arms, his skin as blue and cold as the ice surrounding his feet, and looked down at the group while wiggling his broad eyebrows.

His associate was a lanky man with a mint-green lab coat like Cortex's, black gloves and boots. The skin's covered in ash with two bolts plugged into the sides of his large cranium. He was standing back waiting, nervously wiggling his thick eyebrows.

The armored man tapped his thick silver gauntlet and remarked suavely "So I see the fools have fled the sinking ship…" Focusing on N. Gin's ship until he looked down at the others, particularly Crash, he continued "Tell us where the treasure is, and we'll let you go."

Crash stood up and blinked blankly, scratching the side of his ear. The man said quietly "Not talking eh?" yet instead of resorting to force his gaze glided to Shin's pants. He caught eye of the artifact piece sticking out of the pocket and mentioned "Now what's this? A key to the treasure, perhaps…?"

He bent down and reached for the stone, yet Shin leaped up in a crouched pose while drawing his rapier in one hand and covering the artifact with the other. Shin spoke with his piercing glare, earning a chuckle from the man "Defensive are we now? There is nothing you can withhold from N. Tropy, master of time and space!"

Finally getting up from the explosion, Uka-Uka widens his eyes and exclaims "What is the meaning of this N. Tropy?!" N. Tropy glanced aside at the mask and said "Well, look who finally awoke from their little arctic nap. If you're curious to know, I overheard Dingodile talking of a treasure held by those vile birds that have been giving YOU trouble recently."

Uka widened his mouth without saying a thing. Alex mentioned "Wow, news travels fast" and swung his right hand out to draw his sword. This got N. Tropy's attention enough to comment "Ah yes, I heard about you as well. Does the little Overlord truly think he can intimidate me with a dull sword and a pitiful stare?"

"We have bigger fish to fry than you. You'll get nothing from bothering us." Alex stood his ground, yet N. Tropy scoffed and waved his hand out to summon a large silver tuning fork that pinched the sides of Shin's neck between it's cold prongs. Alex quivered while Shin, despite a jolt of pain, cautiously held his glare towards the man's arrogant face.

"Rule one of intimidation, boy…" N. Tropy twisted the fork slightly to dig it more into Shin's neck, lifting him an inch off the ground before he continued "Actions draw out one's fear far greater than any word." Alex was midway through drawing his blade before his face to attack, yet his arm tensed enough to stop when he saw how little restraint N. Tropy showed on his face.

"I have to plan this right, or Shina…" Dreading the further pursuit of that thought without understanding why he cared that much, Alex lowered his arm and joined Shin in glaring at the man. N. Tropy relished in brief but quaint laughter before stating "That's a good boy. Now, I will be taking my pri-" When he turned his head his eyes widened and he grew to have a scowl.

"Where is it?!" He exclaimed, causing Alex and Shin to look at that pocket to find the artifact piece was gone. It was a good thing they quickly found Crash waving it around in his right hand, otherwise the stress for Shin would've been unbearable. With a grin, Shin proclaimed "Thanks Crash! Really appreciate the back-up!"

N. Tropy pulled the fork from Shina's neck and his calmness shattered with a yell of "You little VERMIN! You will not foil my plans this time!" He then turned to the silent man and demanded "N. Brio…It's time to get changed!"

With a briefly unhinged laugh, the man pulled out a beaker filled with a green liquid and said triumphantly "Finally, I get to say something!" before partaking in the consumption of that vile potion of his. Immediate results manifested in his limbs and head jerking around abnormally, his eyes twitching faster than a rattle in the hands of a baby until they rolled back into his head. All at once, his body bloated and transformed, turning him into some strange and titanic hybrid of a frog and a gorilla, complete with green skin and ripped forearms. Surprisingly, his lab coat remained mostly intact.

Giving a resounding bound, N. Brio shook the iceberg and caused Shin to slip up and fall on his rear. Alex, Crash and the masks focused on N. Brio, who leaped forward and tried to pound them with his beastly hands. Crash slid to the right while Alex threw the blunt end of his sword up to block the attack even as the iceberg continued to shake.

N. Brio stood down and kept pounding down to try and make Alex budge, and while his knees weakened he kept his ground. This gave him a chance to ask "W-Weren't you allied with Crash last time?!"

In a beastly tone the scientist replied "It was a temporary truce to stop that loon Cortex! Being a good guy doesn't put money in the bank or food on the table, so I decided to assist N. Tropy in his treasure hunt!" Alex widened his eyes a bit and replied "You know, experience makes me understand what you're saying…So listen when I say you aren't going to get anything out of bothering us."

"A LIKELY story!" N. Brio leaped up high and brought all his weight down upon Alex, whose attempt to protect himself with fire backfired as he weakened the ground he was in and got pounded right through it into the icy depths. The scientist's weight also cracked apart the iceberg into different sized chunks. His fists now stuck into the ground allowed Crash to leap over and rapidly spin into his body to throw him into the water.

"Nice job Crash, but that will briefly hold him off." Aku commented as the bandicoot turned around and gave a grin and thumbs-up. Uka more infuriatingly commented "This is ridiculous! Everyone should be listening to me! I'm the big villain, and yet here I am getting upstaged by birds and suffering insubordination from everyone else!"

Crash pulled Uka-Uka from the air and gave him a hug. As the bandicoot patted him on the back he dropped the artifact piece, and the evil mask said "N-No! S-Stop this nonsense at once…I-I don't need a hug…!" He was sniveling near the end.

"Crash, dude! Don't be careless with that!" Shin spoke in panic as he was busy clashing with N. Tropy, whose tuning fork was long enough to parry every single one of his rapier slices no matter how quickly he struck. The madman turned and saw the artifact piece vulnerable, yet Crash made good on listening and plucked it right up, but to the man's irritation.

Shin leaped up and tried to go for a downward thrust at the man's face, but he prodded his tuner fork into his gut and with a distortion of time-space forced him back. Shin spun once and landed on the southernmost ice, grabbing the rapier in both hands and rapidly stabbing the air to send needles of sparkling aura at N. Tropy. The man smashed his tuning fork against the ground and created a warped barrier around him that absorbed each needle.

"Hmph, amateur!" He mocked before swinging his fork to send a wave of wobbling electricity at Shin, whose frontal aura barrier gets shattered once it made contact. N. Tropy commented "I am wasting time on you…" and turned towards Crash. Shin grit his teeth and sped over the ice, managing to stab forth with enough strength to crack the man's chest clock before he could react. N. Tropy wobbled back and grit his teeth with a grunt.

"Though apparently, you still need to be taught a lesson…" N. Tropy wiggled his upper lip as he scowled, with Shin remarking "You're not going to lay a finger on that stone" with a deep and fierce tone.

"You have no choice in the matter." N. Tropy leaped forward and tried to slam his tuner fork down with a powerful grunt, and Shin rolled over to another piece of ice while slicing the air to send a wave of aura into the man.

By this time, Alex finally got out of the water, controlling heat around his body enough to dry off without melting the ice. He got next to Crash and said "Ok, I think you might want to toss that back to Shina. When-" N. Brio leaped right out of the water and landed on top of Alex, crushing him beneath his rotund girth. Crash then threw the artifact towards Shin even though they're distracted by the battle.

The stone hit Shin on the side of his head as he was about to deliver a powerful attack to the vulnerable N. Tropy. The blunt force left him dizzy, yet he looked to the right and upon seeing the stone dived at it. A lack of proper perception made him miss, but not though it mattered. N. Tropy picked the artifact piece up in a bubble of time and drew it close to his hand. With a smirk as Shin is able to focus on him with a dilapidated expression, the man spoke "Not a second too late, either…"

Shin's heart beat against his chest at an increasingly faster pace, followed by him trying to scramble to his feet against the might of this slippery surface. He doesn't even wait until he's halfway up to coat his rapier in aura and draw it back. N. Tropy tries to block the wide slice with his tuner fork, but not only is that cut through like butter but a scar's put into the center of his chest along the bottom of his left arm.

"Gghh…!" N. Tropy stumbled back yet grasped the artifact tightly. With a cold, bitter glare Shin coated his blade in more energy and focused on the hand he held the stone in. N. Tropy just warped to the northern part of the broken iceberg before he's cut through by the rending light. The man swung a hand back and opened a spherical rift in time and space, exclaiming as Shin focused back on him "N. Brio! We must leave with the spoils of victory!"

By this point Alex had pushed the hulking mutant off his body with a plume of water, yet N. Brio leaped over to N. Tropy and stuck his tongue out, revealing an unconscious N. Gin on it. "I found him underwater, should we bring him along?" N. Tropy looked as Shin was flying right at them with a fierce scowl on his face and hastily said "Do what you want, just go!"

N. Brio noticed what was going on and swung his fist out, smashing Shin in the head. He's sent flying at Alex as he tries to stop their departure, knocking them out of flight. N. Tropy scoffed and waved the artifact around, ending his presence here with a smirk as him and N. Brio entered the rift.

Shin got off Alex and while on his knees held a hand out as the rift sealed up, crying out in vain "NO! Give it back!" But not only was the artifact gone, but so too the hope in Shin's eyes. With eyelids quivering halfway shut as he bit his lower lip, Shin held his head against the ground and clenched his fists until the nails poked the skin.

Alex stood up and with mouth partially agape couldn't believe what happened. He looked down at Shin, hearing a faint whimper and a melancholy pitter of drops. Trying to console him, Alex said quietly "Shina…I'm sorry I didn't get relay things in time to Crash. It's my fault this happened."

Shin shook his head, faintly muttering "N-No it's not…It's my fault…" before breaking into a more tearful cry of "I should've paid more attention! I-I should've used my Gunslinger Drive sooner! I-I-I…I should've held that artifact tight, and NEVER let it go!"

Briefly looking back, Alex saw Crash holding Uka's mouth shut despite his struggling, and Aku gave an understanding nod so the boy could keep going. Alex focused on Shin and said "Look Shina, I know this was a setback, but it ultimately doesn't matter-" Shin got up and turned around, grabbing Alex by his shirt and dragging him in close.

Face-to-face, Alex stared into Shin's eyes and saw in them a rage so strong and unknown that it made him hesitate to continue to the point of feeling impotent. Gritting his teeth, Shin tore into Alex with a quiet rage "Doesn't matter…? Do you want to repeat that again?"

As his pupils shrunk, Alex let out a shrill whisper of "I-I-I was s-saying that…we're going to see those two again later…" and then closed his eyes squeamishly. A second later, he's dropped to the ground, much to his surprise, and he opened his eyes to find Shin looking a little calmer.

Yet a melancholy air still loomed over him, Shin muttered "O-Oh…right…" embarrassingly and turned around, holding a hand to his chest. Alex couldn't tell what was on his mind, but the long sigh said enough. After processing his thoughts enough, Shin looked back and said "…We should…probably get back to Cortex now."

"Alright. I imagine N. Tropy cannot use that stone for his purposes, so we'll reclaim it later. I promise you that, Shina." Aku said with every ounce of his confidence. That brought enough of a smile to Shin's face that Alex could tell it was genuine, and after nearly screwing things up the boy went silent. Consigning to guiding a chunk of ice back to mainland, Alex hoped he could get the artifact back soon, and fix this mess of a situation…

 _Next Time: Aggression Zone_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: A New Type of Shina**

After making it back to the island, the slow stroll back to Cortex's laboratory began. There was little in the way of conversation, as the mood didn't feel right for it. Alex looked at Shin, noticing a perturbed aura around him and realizing his earlier smile was forced.

" _I can't blame him…Had I not underestimate N. Brio's strength and N. Tropy's cunning, the stone would still be in our possession."_ Alex bit his lower lip and secretly punched his chest, clenching the fist tightly enough to hear his glove creak.

" _Why am I weaker on this world…? Those two never would've gotten the jump on me if I was at my full strength."_ As he was stuck in this line of thinking, he only gave a brief glance up, finding Shin looking back at him with a solemn glare. He swiftly looked ahead again and Alex murmured "Come on Shina…Say something."

"Alex…It's fine. Just let me think." Shin rubbed the side of his head and sighed, not fooling Alex in the slightest. Once more not bothering to stop and think, Alex replied "You can think all you want, but don't give me the cold shoulder."

There was a pause that was broken only by a sudden snicker from Shin. He glanced over, barely containing his laughter "B-But Alex…" then he swung around with a smile and proclaimed "Isn't this the best place for being cold?!"

Alex lurched back, the joke hitting like a punch to the face, and stuttered "W-What…?" Shin folded his arms back and replied "Yeah dude, don't you get it? Cause we're on an island of ice and-"

"Don't explain the joke your humorless ninny!" Uka-Uka proclaimed, expanding his body in rage as he then got between the two and continued "And stop wasting our time with your ceaseless moping! We have more important things to take care of…like reclaiming my right to rule this pathetic world!"

The evil mask "humph'd" and moved on. Shin blushed and stammered "Y-Yeah, that's right…The Evil Twins are holding another artifact piece…" He turned on a dime and continued through a small tunnel that honestly would've been a faster way to the ship from the lab. As Alex followed, he found himself thinking back to how Shin acted towards him earlier.

" _Doesn't matter…? Do you want to repeat that again?"_ Those words echoed in his mind, filling him with a strange blend of fear and curiosity towards what he might've said had he not defused the tension. He just found it difficult to imagine someone like Shina getting completely angry. Thinking back to his curiosity, Alex wondered why a part of him wanted to see her get mad.

" _This is such a weird thing to think about on the Crash Bandicoot world."_ He couldn't disregard how fuzzy his heart felt though as that line of thought lingered. Letting out a "Bleck!" as a childish denial of his feelings, he noticed that they were back at the lab with a platform waiting to take them to Cortex's Psychotron. Yet before they took it, Aku commented "Didn't we leave Cortex behind?"

"If he's not already back in his lab waiting for us to do his dirty work, I'll eat my socks." Alex said with a roll of the eyes as he stood on the platform. The others joined, slowly taking them up to the top. Along the way, Alex looked at Shin and asked "S-So uhhh…Probably a strange time to ask this but…How does it feel to be a guy?"

"What…? Oh, this thing." Shin said, unfocused on Alex's face as he scratched the side of his head and replied "Well, I do wonder how you can carry this girth around." Alex's face broke into a thick blush and he struggled to say something at first.

"Y-You don't have to bring THAT u-" However his embarrassed scrambling would prove unjustified as Shin flexed his right arm to show off a bulging bicep, remarking "I mean, males got all this muscle mass. It feels like it'd be a pain to deal with."

Alex glanced away after a couple blinks and thought _"Says the one with the hefty honkers"_ as Shin loosened his flex and said "So what were YOU thinking about?" This caused the boy to flinch and tense up instantly.

" _Some worthless adolescent nonsense apparently…"_ Was on his mind but he ended up looking to the left as they had made it to the top and commented instead "O-Oh look, we're here!" Then he broke into a sprint towards the entrance to the Psychotron and punched his lips a couple times.

"Come on mouth, cooperate with the mind!" He murmured before the others caught up. Shin was willing to drop the conversation as they had important matters to attend to. Entering the lab, they found Cortex at the computer from before, the energy vortex still being woven by his machinery. Upon seeing the others, especially Crash and the two Crystals he had, the scientist clapped.

"Thank you for doing my dirty work. Now we can FINALLY go after those rapscallions!" Cortex accepted the crystals with open arms, and Crash looked for a hug after. Cortex pushed him aside with no effort put in and gripped the crystals tightly, a grin wide on his face as he let out a triumphant laugh. Yet his triumph would be interrupted by the call of a certain frustrated female bandicoot.

"Let my brother go you jerk!"

Somehow, the spunky genius and sister to Crash, Coco Bandicoot, had gotten into this room. She had on her usual white shirt and blue jeans, yet a scowl crossed her face. She leaped forth and with a swift kick down under to Cortex the scientist threw the crystals towards the energy vortex and keeled over, gripping his loins and squealing "M-My crystals!"

But the crystals' contact with the energy caused a malfunction within the Psychotron, dispersing bolts of energy across the room. Alex quickly grabbed Shin and flung them both onto the ground as the masks spun around. Crash stood still with a grin on his face and every bolt missed, but his sister was not so lucky. During her attempt to karate chop Cortex, a bolt struck and she immediately stiffened up. Every inch of her body could not move, yet her face had become rather goofy looking with her gums bared and her nose perked.

As she dropped to the ground, the bolts stopped and a siren went off on the computer. With his legs trembling, Cortex stood up and wobbled over to check things out. After just a few seconds he pounded his fists on the keyboard, proclaiming as he gestured frustratingly at Coco "Well! Thanks to Ms. Kicks-a-Lot, the Psychotron is broken!"

Alex got up and rolled his eyes, snarking "Wow, who could've seen something of Cortex's failing." Uka even joined in on a more serious note and said "All you had to do was put the crystals in and press 'On'. Why oh WHY did I ever even CONSIDER hiring you to be my henchman in the first place?!" Uka quickly rammed himself into Cortex's face as he demanded an answer even he couldn't come up with.

"Now l-lets not get ahead of ourselves here Uka-Uka. I can fix this, but I'm going to need some help." Cortex backed off as the mask proclaimed "Oh yeah, and who is that?!"

Cortex glanced left and right, focusing in on a picture of a strange grey-skinned girl with bulky iron gauntlets and buck teeth. He raised a finger up in brilliance and proclaimed "Yes, that's it! We'll recruit my beautiful and diabolical niece, Nina Cortex!" Then he pivoted a little to point at a picture of a wicked looking academy and continued "Quickly, to Madame Amberly's Academy of Evil!" then one more pivot to point at a picture of a patched up blimp with his insignia on it "We'll take my cruise blimp post-haste! We haven't lost this battle yet!"

As Cortex was going off in glee, Crash was poking at Coco's stiff body and looking a little sad. Shin walked up to him and commented with a pat on the back "Don't worry Crash, at least I'll be able to save _your_ sister." The bandicoot swerved and shook Shin's hand floppily with a grin. With their destination in mind, the group exited the lab and traveled some hovering platforms towards the massive mosaic blimp that Cortex had floating around.

"Can't say I've ridden a blimp before." Alex said dryly as a lift carried them into the blimp. Shin added to that "It kind of loses it's spectacle since we can already fly."

"Oh just take the fun out this won't you?" Cortex said with a frustrated scowl as they reached the innards of his blimp. It was nice and comfy with a good open view of the skies thanks to the windows surrounding the cockpit, but Cortex wasn't going to let the others enjoy that as he proclaimed "There is nothing more spectacular riding in a blimp! Looming over the meager folk, becoming an emperor of the skies!"

As he boasted he took a small lift to the cockpit, unaware of just who was already floating nearby.

"Ah, so what you're saying is this is how the rich and the ugly fly!" It was Victor, who was joined by Maurice in front of the wheel. Cortex spun around with his expression going sour, and he was joined by the others leaping up not long after. Maurice wiggled his fists in delight and asked "Hey stewardess, can I have some more of those spicy peanuts?"

Fist raised, Cortex began to open his mouth and approach the Evil Twins, but Maurice went "Booooo-ring!" and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, Cortex's voice shifted into turbo "IshallcrushyoulikethepunybirdsyouareyouarenothingtomeforiamthegreatandallpowerfulNeoCortex!Youinfantileverminhowdareyoumanhandleme!RestassuredIwilltakemyterriblevengeance-"

He stopped with an almost vegetative slant of his jaw, panting at a more natural pace. Victor wagged a hand out and said "Yeah yeah, get to the good part already." Alex spoke up for Cortex by saying "Oh you mean the part where you give us that stone you found and turn Shina back to normal?"

"Ooooh! I like that part!" Maurice said, completely straight-faced. Victor had to slap him and exclaimed "No you idiot, he's trying to trick you!" before floating closer to the boy and saying "You'd think after three encounters you'd recognize how futile your smart-mouth is against our incredible power, but it seems you're a slow learner…"

"Not really, momma always taught me that the worst a bird can do is put a little white on your shoulders." Alex leered at them and continued "Now I see she was right."

"THAT…DOESN'T EVEN…MAKE ANY…SENSE!" Victor swung his fists and advanced every time, following by him pointing a wing at Shin and proclaiming "Fine then you stupid bipedal mammal, now I'm REAAAAAALLY going to play tough!"

However, Victor ended up noticing how Shin had a neutral expression on their face. With a shrug, Shin told him "Oh, just get it over with." Victor lowered his hand and his beak was agape, leading to him muttering "Y-You can't be serious."

After no one responds to him for a good ten seconds, the bird grabbed the sides of his helmet and raised his voice "You think you can make a mockery of me? ME?! I am stronger than ALL OF YOU…No…THIS ENTIRE PLANET OF YOU PRIMATES COMBINED! And smarter and p-prettier and…"

He was starting to pant and sweat when his brother tapped him on the shoulder and commented "You know Victor, there's another way to handle this." Victor swung back and exclaimed "WHAT?!" as Maurice had a sly smirk on his face.

"Well, I've been reading the boy's mind like an open book for the last few seconds."

"E-Excuse me…?" Alex spoke in a soft, flabbergasted tone. Maurice turned around and with a wiggle of his brows mentioned "Yeah! We can't affect you directly, sooooo…I decided to try something a little more clever."

"For once! So what did you find?" Victor was intrigued, but Alex grit his teeth and raised his hand ready to flame them. However, any attack here would damage the blimp, and the birds gave a smirk his way once he realized that. Maurice rubbed his hands together and said blissfully "Oh there's some really juicy secrets here Victor, but I think you should try this…"

Alex grit his teeth and looked around. Shin has an uneasy expression but looked resigned to not being able to stop the Evil Twins as they whispered at each other. The others had the same line of thinking, as they grumbled and looked around while playing cards.

" _You got be kidding me…!"_ Alex began to move for his right pocket, fingers wrapped around the stone in there. He couldn't hold it for long as his fingers quivered and he slowly pulled away, continuing this thought with a nervous scowl _"I should just send these birds to the Stone Age, but…"_

"Grrrhhh…" Alex pulled his hand out and Victor turned to him in order to ask "You can end this by giving up Cortex. Come on now…He's a villainous, treacherous man. You'd be doing the world a favor. Wouldn't that make you happy?"

Alex looked at Cortex, who was tricking Crash out of one of his cards until Aku blasted him. Looking at that vile man and the fact he's had to tolerate his presence combined into a feeling that can only be described as disgust. His heart started pounding, lips wiggling like he wanted to form words, but that stopped when he looked at Shin. He closed his eyes, and the nod he gave showed a lot of trust.

With his temptations eased, Alex whispered "…I'm sorry Shina" and then turned to the Evil Twins. He bluntly told them "You're the enemy. No one of your disposition should have that power. Crash and Cortex will stop you if we don't."

Victor grinned and pulled back, storm clouds forming up outside to bathe the bird in the shadow of the lightning that falls as he pointed at Shin and said "You won't be saying that for long, boy…!" Shin grimaced and was once more covered in a cloud of smoke.

Alex focused on the smoke and grit his teeth, unintentionally gulping as thousands of dreaded thoughts crossed his mind. More than likely they were going to transform her into someone from his past, that would've been the easiest thing to pull from his mind. It could be Cackletta, it could be Joe Dark, it could Chaos Alex…

" _Or worst of all…It could be_ _ **HIM**_ _…"_ There was a name and a face associated with those thoughts that Alex had buried deep within his mind, but that wouldn't stop those birds from digging deep if they truly wanted to pull that info free. The smoke subsided, yet all those fears were for nothing as suddenly Shina stood there, having been returned to normal…?

Alex blinked a couple times and looked at the Evil Twins, who snickered and said "Oh dear, what could we possibly have done?" while shrugging their shoulders. Alex moved around and looked at Shina's expression. She quietly and slowly put her fists into her pockets and wiggled her lips into a scowl.

"Shina, what did those birds do to you?" Alex's inquiry was met with Shina turning, her expression filled with pure aggression as she proclaimed in a deeper, grouchier voice "Oh please, like you give a s*** how I feel you little imp!"

Alex slowly steps back while Cortex, Crash, Aku and Uka spit out their coffee. "W-What…?" The boy stammers as Shina pokes him in the chest a couple times, leaning forward until she was in his face.

"You heard me…gutter trash!" Shina grinned with a little too much enjoyment, giving a good snort as she reeled back and broke into cackling laughter, the back of her hand leaning against her forehead. Alex's eyes go up and down as he suddenly felt incredibly feeble and confused.

"Look at your stupid face! You can't say anything to defend yourself can you?! You're just a limp d*** piece of work aren't ya?!" Shina's attitude got Cortex to stand up and comment "Now young lady, that type of langu-"

He almost gets a dagger of aura through a sleeve for his troubles as Shina exclaimed "Can it you limp banana!" Cortex's knees trembled as he sat down and murmured "Y-Yes ma'am!"

Shina planted her fists against her hips and said in a snobby tone "Pffft, at least that little idiot gets it." Then with a smirk she leaned back against the wall and pushed her chest out. This time there was no innocence in this motion, but pure temptation. She looked at Alex's attempt to hide his blush and gave him an arrogant glare.

"You know s***stain…I'm technically royalty. So if you want to say you actually care about me…" She held a shoe up halfway and folded her arms behind her head before continuing "Then get to work like the commoner you're barely worthy of being. Come on limp d***, work that dirty tongue of yours!"

Alex, with an uneasy expression, slowly shook his head. Shina proclaimed "What, do you have no f***ing b***s?!" then turned to the Evil Twins as they were devouring popcorn like a black hole. With a shrug she said "Hey parrots, I know a couple of birds who want to join your cause!"

"Oh, really?!" Maurice said excitedly, only for him and Victor to drop their popcorn when Shina flips her middle fingers up at them, both of them covered in pixilated junk. Victor swung a wing out and proclaimed "Are you TRYING to bump this story up to a T-Rating missy?!"

With another obnoxious snort Shina folded her arms under her chest to push them up as she proclaimed "Oh please, like I give a-" then she was quickly shocked by Alex grabbing and applying electricity from her neck across her body. This knocks her out and she plops to the ground, but even though he tried to avoid the blimp Cortex still commented "Are you nuts?!"

Alex focused entirely on the Evil Twins with a glare, forcing himself to endure Victor's taunts of "Oh well, guess the fun's over…for now. Just remember boy…You can end this any time." They open a zipper rift behind them, wiggling their fingers together as they sink into it. Before they were gone, Victor said "Oh and Cortex…You better remember us by the time the boy gives you up, otherwise the things we have planned for you won't be as… _ **enjoyable.**_ "

When they were gone, Alex didn't stop clenching his fists even as he glanced down at Shina. Cortex broke up the card game and went for the wheel of the blimp, commenting "Well, that was something. Now lets get back on course!" After a little shaking he got the blimp going away from the lab.

Alex bent down and checked Shina's pulse. It was still beating slowly, but she'd be out for hopefully a while. To be safe though, Alex picked her up and used the metal in the blimp to chain her to the wall. She was wrapped like a mummy sans the mouth by the time he was done. He sighed and did nothing but stand there looking at Shina as the blimp took them to the Academy of Evil.

Even though he had been on this world for only a few hours, he couldn't explain why he felt as though it had been an eternity since he'd seen the real Shina. He raised a hand up towards her right cheek, yet stopped partway and clenched his fingers, feeling uncomfortably about this.

"What did they do to you Shina…?" He whispered. As he turned around, he saw Crash walking up to him. The bandicoot tilted his head and glanced at Shina, leading Alex to ask weakly "Is there something you want Crash?"

The bandicoot stood there for a little and then nodded, followed by him approaching Alex with arms held out and hugging his legs. Crash stood like this for a good minute, Alex just awkwardly looking around unable to really think of something proper to say. In the end, he could only muster a thought _"Maybe you're smarter than we give you credit for Crash."_

There was little activity afterwards from all parties as the blimp approached a towering hilltop surrounded by a veil of a starry, eternal night, complete with the cliché'd orange hued full moon. The light of the moon bathed a twisted schoolhouse in shadow sans the pale yellow windows. The place looked straight out of a black-and-white horror film, but it's present filled Cortex's heart with delight as he descended the blimp.

"Ah…I missed this place." Cortex was all too ready to take in the sights and smells as he lowered an anchor, smashing the abandoned "ethics" facility. Once the ride was secured, Cortex brought down a staircase atop the abandoned "common sense" facility and started to step out.

The air was filled with a foggy, crusty smell, the grass was rotten black, the trees had curved branches, all water was made of a mucky green sludge, there were whole skeletons being chomped on by black demonic dogs living in tiny doghouses, and there was some wicked witch cackles playing over the grounds' speakers.

"Just as I remember it! The most wicked and vile place in the whole universe!" Cortex proclaimed with fists raised in glee, only for Alex to murmur "I've seen wickeder."

"No one likes a buzzkill, buzzkill." Cortex replied with an aloof gesture back, followed by him pointing up and saying "By the way, your lover got loose."

Alex couldn't even let out a "What?" before he found himself kicked in the back and getting propelled forward into a nearby wall. His head busted a hole into it and Shina bounced off his back, immediately breaking into snorting guffaws as she pointed a finger at Alex's predicament and said "That's what you get for trying to use me for your nasty bondage fetish you sick freak! Hahahaha!"

Ripping himself from the wall, Alex turned around and with a deflated sigh told Shina "Ok look, I don't know what the Evil Twins did to you, but don't tell me you've forgotten we have a job to do." Shina actually stopped laughing long enough to widen her eyes in inspiration and punch down on her open palm.

"Oh yeah, gotta save my f***ing adorable sister." Shina gave a firm nod while Alex breathed a sigh of relief over THAT part of Shina remaining unchanged. But then she put on ecstatic grin and proclaimed proudly "When this is all said and done, imma sit that bundle of joy down and teach her how to be a REAL woman!"

"She'll probably have some real big t*** like I do when she grows up, so I gotta show her how to-" As Shina started to cup her uhhh…ho boy someone should really increase the rating for this story…anyways, Alex grabs her arms and stared into her eyes, firmly fighting against his discomfort to say "Stay. FOCUSED."

Shina spat in Alex's face and snarked "Bite me! Though, ha, you'd like that wouldn't you? You sick, impish deviant you!" She leaned forward with her piercing, malevolent grin and Alex let go almost instantly. As she stood upright and haphazardly strolled towards the fountain Alex looked at his quivering hands until she proclaimed "Come on slave boy, we got my lovely little sister to save and you got some real f*** ups to correct! Including your entire life, but hey you can loathe yourself to sleep with your Linkin Park later!"

Alex, at a loss for words, watched as near the school's fountain Shina stamped down on a hidden switch and opened a staircase that Cortex tumbled right down much to his confusion. Then she hopped down laughing madly. By then Alex had ran over, with Aku commenting firmly "Alex…" before the boy turned back and said "I-I'll handle this, I promise!"

"Are you KIDDING? This is the most entertainment I've had all day!" Uka proclaimed before flying in pursuit of the spectacle. Alex, without hesitation, stated with his face stiff in disbelief "This isn't entertaining at all…T-This is just wrong!" And yet, this was just the start of a long nightmare…

 _Next Time: Down 'N' Dirty._


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Down Under Dingodile**

" _Hey! HEY! Are you listening to me?! You're my own body, so why aren't you listening to me?!"_ Shina's mind cried out to her disobedient form as it assaulted Alex both physically and verbally. Her mind was represented as a tiny body within a bird cage, a little fanciful touch added in by the Evil Twins. Shina could only watch through her eyes as stuff was happening, bitterly biting at her lower lip as she gripped her hands around the bars.

" _Why is this happening on the Crash Bandicoot world of all places…? This is supposed to be a fun world, an innocent world…W-Why…?"_ Shina lowered her head and was a second away from crying until she shook her head and looked up, seeing Alex trying to bind her body to the walls of the ship.

" _No, this is what those birds want from me. They want me to break, but I'm not gonna. Not when Alex will make sure I'm back to normal soon enough. He'll do the right thing, I know he will."_ Shina then turned her bitterness into happiness, curling her lips into a smile and humming a little tune as her memories manifested as images around her.

" _I'll use my memories to smile, so my smile can give me the strength to create more memories later…"_ Shina would continue to sit, a prisoner of her own mind, as events unfolded outside her control.

Considering her body currently kicked Cortex down a flight of stone stairs, she probably at least wishes she could control her legs. If it wasn't for the cartoony nature of this world, Cortex would've been covered in bruises by the time Shina got down there.

"Pffft hahaha! You're just getting what you deserved you degenerate doc!" Shina proclaimed with obnoxious laughter accompanying her deep tone of mockery. Alex got to the bottom of the stairs alongside Crash and the masks and grabbed her left arm, looking her in the eyes as she just didn't have a care to give.

"Are you nuts? Last thing you want is for Cortex to get brain damage from any unnecessary roughhousing!" Uka rolls his eyes and murmurs "Like there's much to damage…" only to get a palm to the mouth from Alex.

"NOT helping…!" He said through gritted teeth before looking back at Shina, who already had a foot on Cortex's back, a sadistic, almost pleasured look on her face.

"Oh, I haven't forgotten that…But I think this pasty little man could make do with a little groveling for once in his miserable, arrogant life." Shina rubbed the sole of her shoe against Cortex's back, but the man must have gained a slight intolerance to pain as he raised a finger up and commented defiantly "Now listen here young lady, I don't know who taught you your manners, but this behavior is UNACCEPTABLE!"

"Oh, just some worthless drunken b**** who'd rather sit on her fat a** instead of doing jack s***!"

" _H-Hey! That's not what I think about mom at all!"_

"Shina! That's your mother you're talking about!" Alex said in stunned silence, with Aku commenting "We're not going to get anywhere if you deal with the machinations of the Evil Twins. It'd probably be in your best interest to knock her out and this time be more…"

The mask coughed and continued "…forceful with the restraints" before he was plucked out of the air by Shina. With a grin on her face she muttered "I'm more useful than you'll ever be in this situation, toothpick!"

"Be that as it may, you'd be even more useful as yourself than this brute those birds have made you."

" _Awwww, thanks Aku!"_

"Pffft, yeah right! That weak idealistic little s*** I was before was worthless. Now those stupid birds won't be treating me like a car window ever again!" Shina threw Aku away into Crash's grasp then got off of Cortex's back.

Alex looked her in the eyes as she gave a firm grin and pulled away from his grasp. The forcefulness shook him a little, yet her aggression seemed to be tamed just a little as she looked at Cortex getting up and asked "Alright puny man, what's your f***ing plan?"

"Well, seeing as I know these grounds better than anyone, I won't fault you for opening the secret fountain passage. There's a defense grid in the very depths of the sewer system that we'll need to disable before we can reach my niece."

"Or we can just bust through the f***ing school and nab your niece!" Shina punched her knuckles together, and Cortex commented "On any other day that wouldn't be a bad idea, but there is a…particular person I want to avoid."

"Awwww, poor wimpy Cortex doesn't want his teacher to see how much of a disappointment he's become!" Uka stated with mocking sympathy.

"N-Now listen here…! I am a proud graduate of this fine establishment, I have nothing to be ashamed of!" Cortex put his foot down with an unsure grin. Everyone nodded their head and murmured in agreement that he was full of it.

"Look, my education isn't important right now!"

"I disagree! Clearly these teachers aren't worth scrap if they couldn't even make a henchman worth a darn!"

"Teachers are s***. They all just whine and whine like little b****es about their lives and expect us younger, prettier folk to help them out with their horses***!" Shina brushed her hair aside snobbishly.

" _Oh come on now! I love my teacher! …D-Despite some of her faults."_

At this point, Alex kicked down the steel doors leading into the sewer and said "I'm just going to move on alone now, unless you want to continue your comedy routine." He then strolled into a copper tunnel filled with a noxious green hue due to some pure sludge flowing through the pipes.

Shina ran up to him and gave him a pat on the back so firm it almost knocked him over, followed by a back-handed remark of "Nice going string bean. If only you were always like this instead of being an indecisive ninny." As Alex got up and panted he murmured "Don't think for a second that I believe you're the real Shina."

"Oh ho HO! Going for that cheesy bulls*** are you?" Shina turned around and held her hands together beside her face, making her eyes glitter as she said girlishly "You thought you were following a pretty, pretty princess…"

Then her tone got crude as she swung her arms out gloriously "But what you got here is one-hundred and ten percent of pure, unadulterated WOMAN!" By this point the others had just continued onward stealthily.

"I-I don't believe the real Shina would ever say that." Alex said while hunched forward a little. Shina puckered her lips in a forced frown and said "Poor wittle baby…Making yourself cozy in a blanket of your own dripping bulls***. When have you EVER gotten to know the real me?"

"…." Alex bit his lower lip, and Shina continued relentlessly as she got uncomfortably close to him "It's ok. You humans are all idiots compared to us superior Aurians…"

" _I-I'm not Gravitus! How dare you use MY lips to say that!"_

Shina put a finger on Alex's beating chest and another on his lips when they opened slightly. With a lick of her lips she said "It's ok though, you don't have to resist. If you want to get to know me better, you can later…When I finally make a REAL man out of you."

" _Cut it out! That's not how you make friends with people!"_

When Shina pulled away, she shrugged her shoulders and commented one last time "You know, if you weren't such an insecure f***-up, maybe you would've bothered to even TRY and get to know me."

" _W-Well maybe that's not the choice of words I'd use b-but…I-I do wish Alex would open up a little more. Friends help each other and…."_

" _Oh no…this 'THING'…I-It's taking some of my deepest thoughts and twisting them!"_

Shina turns around and starts to catch up with the others while Alex was a little hesitant to follow along. His mind was torn between whether or not this was the real Shina. Regardless of that being the truth or not, Alex hated her current behavior.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'd rather have that fooling around goofball back…!" He muttered through gritted teeth before putting his hands into his pockets and sighing. As he caught up with the others, the green hue got thicker due to an increased concentration of sewage.

There were a series of empty pipes with some glowing segments around various parts of them, and the door on the other side was sealed off. Shina was already punching her fists together while exclaiming "Why the f*** can't we just bust our way through?"

"Well if you'd just listen for a second you narrow-minded brute you'd understand that we'd activate the security system if we just break through the doors normally. We have to send something through the pipes to disarm security."

As Cortex looked around Shina rolled her eyes and remarked "That's f***ing stupid. An evil school should REWARD destruction!"

"Seriously! I'm going to file complaints to the facility once I get around to meeting them, Cortex!" Uka rammed into the back of Cortex's head.

At this point he just waved a hand back and muttered "You know what, I'm just going to pretend you're not here anymore." As he approached a machine to the left that appeared to produce something.

"Ah that's right, I remember this from our textbooks…If you put something in the top, it'll be stuffed into a barrel. We COULD use that to activate the pipes, but what should we fill it with? It needs to be dense enough to not break free, but not too heavy to prevent it from moving around…"

Cortex's brainstorming was interrupted by Crash swiftly grabbing and throwing him into the top of the machine, where Cortex's body was thoroughly processed through the pipes and gears inside until he was popped out of the bottom. Now he was confined into a copper barrel that barely fit diminutive body, with only the top of his head poking out.

The barrel wiggled around with echoed grunts within, and the scientist bemoaned "The world's most evil scientist! …Stuck in a barrel. Haaaaaaaaa…could this day POSSIBLY get any worse?" The barrel widened as a squeaky, deflating fart emerged from the doctor's buttocks.

"Oooooooooooohhhh!" Cortex seemed to be on the verge of crying, but his tears would only serve to moisten his encaged body as Crash rolled him towards the nearby pipe. Cortex was shot through by a powerful vacuum and he let out plenty of cries, yet ultimately he did end up deactivating the security in this room and opening the way forward.

"Oh brother…Can't believe we're having to deal with these s***ty babby puzzles!" Shina was not very subtle with her growls of anger and she sloth'd along after the others as they continued to deal with puzzle after puzzle of the same old pipe nonsense. Shina just kept impatiently tapping her foot harder and harder as they got further on, and soon began tugging at her hair.

"The REAL you liked these type of puzzles. Something about it reminding you of your childhood or whatever…" Alex said nonchalantly.

" _Awww, you actually remembered that…In your own way sure but…"_

"Oh please, what good are childhood memories in reality? Memories don't get you anywhere, they're worthless, WORTHLESS! It'd be better to have an empty head than one stuff with such worthless 'treasures'!" Shina leaned forward and breathed into Crash's ear. Dust flew out the other side, the bandicoot only raising a brow with lips puckered as the girl stood up and continued "See, the brain dead bandicoot has the right idea!"

Gripping his arms tightly as they're crossed, Alex muttered "N-Now I get it…The Evil Twins are making you act the complete opposite of yourself." _"And they're finally starting to get under my skin…Darn birds."_

Shina raised her head and sneered "Well you're just going to have to deal with it sissy boy. The Superior Shina is here to stay!"

"…That's what you think. The only good thing about this is that you actually are focused on saving your sister now." Alex rolled his eyes and kept his arms gripped as they moved on.

" _H-Huh? What does Alex mean by that…?"_

The rest of the puzzles went on by with little fanfare, culminating in Cortex finally being released from the barrel. The scientist stretched and wiggled his arms out with a relieved gasp of air.

"Finally out of that nightmare. Now then…" He started to take the others towards a large pressure sealed door. Behind it was an enclosed broiler room filled with magma that made the air wave around.

"Once we go through here we'll find…DINGODILE?!" Cortex widened his eyes as the half-dingo half-crocodile stood in the center of the room, flamethrower cocked in one hand as he held the other one out in greeting.

"Small world ain't it doc?" Eloquently spoken, Dingodile gives the doctor a casual glance and asked "Rumor has it you chumps have found some treasure, and I'd like a piece of that pie."

"I have NO idea what you're even talking about. HOW did you even get in here?" Cortex kept his cool, even as Shina exclaimed "Oh wow, so Cortex was speaking with a mouth full of s*** again."

"Well now…" Dingodile chuckled as he gazed at Shina "Aren't you a spicy little sheila. Perhaps I could bargain you a fair night on the outback in exchange for info on the treasure?"

"Only way a disgusting f***ing animal like you would get to be even a foot within my fine body is as a pair of boots!"

Dingodile shrugged and lifted his flamethrower up, a fire spurting from the nozzle as he warned "Don't blame me for things getting a bit toasty then…" The purple aura and red eyes appear on his body as he sends forth a giant wave of fire from his flamethrower. Crash grabbed Aku and Uka and dove at Cortex to knock him out of the way, almost knocking him off into the magma.

Shina charged through the flames while protecting herself with aura, screaming like a banshee warrior "Now this is more LIKE it!" Her expression was fiercely gripped in madness as she drew her rapier and ripped through the flamethrower's tube with minimal singing on her skin. The aura barrier shattered and bombarded Dingodile viciously, pushing him off the center of the broiler.

"My flamethrower! I see, so you aren't one to trifle with, are you sheila?" Dingodile grabbed the remains of the tube and without hesitation sent the wild flames at Shina, who protected herself with aura and stood up to grab the front of the tube. The flames spurted out in her grasp and she put her face dangerously close to Dingodile's snout.

"Come on larda**, I didn't come to see a campfire, I want you to show me an INFERNO!" Shina smiled wide and licked her lips. Dingodile trembled and stuttered "B-Bloody 'H'….You're out of your flippin' mind!" only for Shina to crunch the front of the tube and cause the flames to feedback into the broiler on his back.

The broiler exploded after Shina turned him around so he'd be propelled close to the edge of the platform. His head limped off of it but the weight wasn't enough to drag him down. Even if it was, Shina going over and stamping on his tail would've stopped it anyways. Dingodile might as well be unconscious at that point, but Shina just bent down and started punching at his back with great force.

"Come on loser! I'm not done having FUN with you yet!" She went at him fiercely, like an amazon grasped by the enamor of battle. Everything was going by like a blur to Alex, but the ferocious violence against Dingodile started to snap him back into reality.

"This is ridiculous…This is so far removed from what she'd do!" Alex's face was exasperated to the point of looking tired.

" _No! Come on body, listen to me just this once…!"_

" _STOP!"_ "STOP!" Suddenly Alex sprinted out and took Shina off-guard by punching her square in the jaw, sending her right to the ground. Dingodile started to slip, but with teeth grit Alex bent down and wrenched him to safety. He was still knocked out, but he'd be able to get out of here on his own now.

Alex panted a little, grasping at his chest before walking towards Shina. Again, she was down for the count. He picked her up despite the risk of her sudden awakening and murmured again in vain "This is ridiculous…"

"Well, now that that obstacle is out of the way, we can get a move on with more important matters." Cortex's nonchalance got Alex to glare at him with a scowl. The group gathered on the platform in the center of the boiler, and after it rumbled a little it rose up through the ceiling. They were now back on the Academy grounds, but the air of wickedness was now replaced with one of unease.

As Cortex tried to leave, Alex stepped in front of him and said bluntly "I want you to change Shina back." The scientist rubs his chin and remarks "We have more important things to deal with than your lover spat, boy."

Alex quickly but gently put Shina on the ground and waved his hand up, lifting the ground below Cortex's feet so he'd be face-to-face with him. He was doing his best to hold back the rage with a scowl even as the scientist looked on in confusion.

"I KNOW you had a mind-control ray. That's what you were going to use to make Crash obey. That machine could draw out Shina's actual personality." Alex said, clinging to a desperate hope.

"What you're asking is for hypnotism. I can't turn her mind back to normal, those dumb birds did quite a number on her it seems. Personally wish I had the ability to make my minions into such competent brutes."

"Yeah, I know you would. You don't have a caring bone in your incompetent body, do you?" Alex poked at the man's chest, but with almost suicidal callousness he replied "Oh enough with your showboating threats. The only one who can turn the broad back to normal are those vile twins."

Aku approached Alex and whispered "We need to focus here." With a fierce widening of his eyes the boy replied as without thinking his right hand raised up.

"I'm plenty focused…" He then shot some vines from his hands that tightened around Cortex and threw him to the ground as the platform crumbled. The scientist squirmed and said "W-What is the meaning of this?!"

Before Aku could hastily call out, Alex drowned his voice with an exclamation "VICTOR! MAURICE!" Suddenly, a nearby wall spun around as the two birds were sitting down on theater seats attached to it. Maurice passed Victor a couple gold coins as they floated over, Victor in particular saying "Told ya he'd crack like an egg."

The birds looked down at Cortex's squirming as Crash stood in defense, but the birds brushed him aside with a giant broom and looked at Alex, grinning in joy. Alex, with his heart beating in a pained rhythm, grit his teeth and said "Y-You win…I will give you Cortex in exchange for Shina being turned back to normal…"

 _Next Time: Divergent Mistake_


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:**

I wanted this particular chapter to come out just right, so that's why it took a while for me to get it out. I'd like to take this time now to apologize if it seems my OCs are taking up a lot of screentime. Stories like this are meant to be like how Kingdom Hearts handles it's worlds, with an OC interacting with video game characters, worlds and plots generally speaking. I try to strike a good balance as well as I can, but it has been slipping a bit here through my own volition.

Admittedly, not trying to fully justify myself here but...Crash can't talk. I can only do so much with him. Cortex is the main "hero" for this story anyways. But yeah, after this chapter and the next, we'll be back to a more balanced focus. I'm just getting the stuff I want to here.

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Breaking up is Hard to Do**

Victor slowly clapped as he got up close to Alex, hovering around his body while taunting him "You really did good here boy. Good service…all you'd need is a bow on top and I'd give you five stars!" Alex followed the bird with a scowl as they pointed at Cortex and exclaimed maliciously "ZAP!"

A pink princess bow was stuck on top of Cortex's head as he squirmed. Looking up at how big the bow was, Cortex murmured "You MUST be kidding me. Ok boy, you had your fun at my expense, now shoo these birds off and free me." He didn't take the firm stare from Alex seriously and thus shook back and forth as the boy turned to Victor and commented "You might want to give him some tape."

"I like the way you think!" Victor then did that, reducing Cortex's whimpers to muffled crying. Aku approached Alex from behind and whispered "I'm going to assume this is part of the plan…" The boy closed his eyes and didn't say a word. Victor turned around and with a swipe of the wing sent Aku AND Uka flying towards a nearby tree, where a toy hammer pounds a nail into their foreheads.

"Ow! Ow! WHY ME?! OW!" Uka exclaimed until the mask's mouths were literally zippered shut. Victor rolled his eyes and hovered in front of Alex to ask "Now, you aren't actually stupid enough to be trying and pull the wool over our eyes, are you?"

"You should know that's the real Cortex." When Alex brings that up, a rip's heard and Cortex starts screaming as much as the restraint let him. Maurice had torn the "N" off of his forehead, leaving a glowing red mark on the skin. As Cortex rolled back and forth crying, Maurice said "Yep, I'd recognize that whine anywhere!" and then slapped the "N" back into place.

Victor nodded twice and smacked his beak "Wow! I am actually legitimately impressed!" then he turned and smirked at Alex. The boy was admittedly perplexed by the bird telling him quietly "You're a real piece of work, ain'tcha?"

"…You got what you wanted, now give me what you promised." Alex was quite cross with the birds, yet Victor spun a wing around and said "Yeah yeah, I suppose you held up your end of the bargain." And flicked a tiny magic ball towards Shina. Once it landed her body began to glow for just a few seconds, and nothing looked different about her.

Again confused, Alex stared Victor in the eyes and said "Y-You're actually holding up your end of the bargain?" Swinging his wing against his chest and taking upon an offended tone, Victor said "Well I never!" before switching to a more casual demeanor on the dime.

"Truth be told, I was going to pull the cliché'd 'When did I ever promise anything?' response, but well…That honestly wouldn't be as fun." Ending off with a chuckle, the bird pulled back to pick up Cortex with telepathy. Alex raised his brows and wondered what he meant. Before the Evil Twins took Cortex through a rift, Maurice waved his wing out and said playfully "Have fun Mr. SELL-OUT!"

The moment they were gone, Aku and Uka get freed from the tree. Uka was panting like he had a heavily beating heart while Aku flew over to Alex as he turned. The boy flinched and steadied himself as the mask said firmly "What have you DONE?" Alex swerved away from Aku and bent down as Shina mumbled awake.

"Don't worry about it, I did us all a favor." Alex patted Shina twice on the cheek and her eyes creaked open partway. She didn't have to fully awake for Alex to recognize the innocent air surrounding her body. Alex let out a sigh of relief but gets shocked back as Shina jolted her upper body upright, using her hands for support.

"H-Huh?" Shina sat on her rear and looked at her hands, clenching her fingers until she too let out a sigh of relief. Then she bounced to her feet with a smile, keeping her fists clenched and saying "Neat, I'm back to normal!"

As Alex stood up he asked "Are you sure? NOTHING feels off?" Shina flexed her arms, smacked her lips, checked her drive bracelet, picked wax from her ear, and a few other things that Alex would never have considered doing.

"Nope! I'm right as rain!" Shina said with a perky grin and a short hop. Alex turned around and said "Alright, then that takes care of one problem. Now we just need to-"

"Wait a second Alex!" Shina's confused blurt got him to turn around. She was looking around, giving a couple blinks as she scratched the side of her head and asked "Where'd Cortex go?"

Alex brushes a hand out and replied bluntly "Does it really matter?" Shina partway grinned and told him "Uhhhh, duh! He's the only one who knows how the Psychotron works." When the boy kept his mouth shut, she raised her brows and looked to be having none of that. Grasping an arm behind her back, she looked down and asked "Alex…Why're you lying to me?"

"I'm not lying Shina." The boy, assuming that was a fair response, was still countered by her swinging her arms out and exclaiming almost offended "Well you're certainly not being upfront with me then!" Alex widened his eyes as she looked him straight on, firing daggers. Gripping his fists tightly into his pockets, the boy sighed.

"…So I was wrong, those Evil Twins didn't turn you back, they just dialed down the aggression." Shina pulled back and while her expression made her look set to chuckle she was far from humored as she gasped "W-What are you talking about?"

"Yes, fine! There was only one conclusion to make, so congrats, you determined the obvious! I gave Cortex up to the Evil Twins to stop them from messing with you. You're. WELCOME." Alex spoke up in frustration, stamping his foot down at the end while Shina's heart skipped a beat. She pulled back and finds herself torn between gratefulness and sheer disappointment.

"I-I don't know what to say…" As her eyes moved around with uncertainty, Alex turned and said quiet but blunt "Just get a move on. We've wasted enough time today, and we have things to do."

"Wh-what can we possibly even do now?!" Shina swung her arms out and once more, with his expression crumpled up more frustratingly, Alex faced her as she looked back and forth at her hands and made her point "Cortex was the only one who could operate the Psychotron! How are we supposed to go after the Evil Twins now?!"

"I'll just operate the machine myself can we PLEASE get a move on?" Alex spoke through grit teeth while Shina gave him a blank stare, mouth partially agape. Semi-jokingly she said "Alex I'm sorry, I forgot the part where you knew transdimensional theory."

"Hmph, so what?" Was his childish refute. "It's not like Cortex probably made his machine complicated to operate. After all, someone of his intelligence has to be able to use it." The potshot got Uka chuckling but made Shina's face become increasingly flabbergasted.

"Maybe Cortex has made more mistakes than we're willing to count, but he's still smart where he counts. He built a machine that could mutate animals, he created a space station without a government budget…He made a giant functioning laboratory complete with a machine that can bypass the laws of space-time physics and teleport said lab to another dimension!"

"He's also unrepentantly evil and has done nothing to deserve the saint-like praise you're giving him. What Victor and Maurice do to him is a karma a long time coming." Alex waves a finger out reprimanding at Shina, trying to act like he has authority on the matter. Shina swung her arms out and leaned forward, her expression one of the purest disbelief as she proclaimed "I never said he was a saint! Just that when it boils down to it, he's still someone who knows more about what we're dealing with than you or I!"

"And again, I'm telling you, I can operate the Psychotron. It's not that difficult." Alex folded his arms together and grunted as he turned his head. Shina, making little progress in the face of the stubborn bull that was this boy, tried to calm down with a couple steady breaths before rubbing her forehead.

"Alex, have you ever even operated complex machinery before? You have to tell me now because you've not been open enough for me to guess…" Her voice got a little deeper and subdued. Alex kneaded at his skin with his fingertips and barely mustered the strength to say "N-No…?"

"…You know, I was at least hoping for a 'yes'." Shina rubbed at her forehead circularly, and Alex told her confidently "I'm still the Elemental Overlord!"

"I'm starting to wonder how…" Shina muttered under her breath, yet even the quietest of noises couldn't be hidden from Alex and he exclaimed with a scowl "Ex-CUSE me?!" He could not pursue his anger though, as suddenly Shina pulled her head back and started to let out a partially unhinged and tearful giggle.

"Haha…I-I wish I could just pinch myself now and wake up back in the comfort of home…T-This wasn't how it was supposed to go." She covered her eyes with her sleeve, probably to soak up the couple tears that emerged, and while that happened Alex looked back at the others. Admittedly, with what has happened so far, Aku's piercing glare was reasonable yet hurtful in the boy's mind. Uka was enjoying this, and Crash…was Crash.

Alex's heart felt weak and his eyes tired, yet like a forest fire he was too stubborn to be put out. He turned back ready to say something only to find Shina holding onto the note her mother gave her. She closed her eyes and crumpled the corner, followed by a shake of the head.

"Why…Why did mom choose you?" Shina suddenly swung the note away and proclaimed with watered eyes "Can't you at least give me ONE good reason why she wanted me to find you?! Give me something, ANYTHING to convince me Alex!"

Quietly, Alex turned around. Shina held a hand out, the note clenched to her chest and murmured "Please…" The boy felt a weight on his heart heavier than before. It was cold, quelling but directing his rage at himself "Your mother judged with her experiences of the past. I'm not the same Elemental Overlord the previous was. I just…can't match that legend."

"I don't want to hear that!" Shina let out a despair filled scream. She stopped again to catch her breath with a heavier pant than before. Then she closed her eyes and crumpled the note in her fist, a crack coming from her knuckles.

"I-If that's how you felt all along Alex…Then why did you even come with me?" The boy's cheeks went red for a bit. The deepest reaches of his mind had the answer all ready to go, yet he refused it's presence with every stubborn strand of DNA in his being. Silence pervaded the air until Shina grit her teeth and said "…I-I just don't get it, Alex."

"Excuse me?" Alex swerved to face her as she lifted her head up, a trickle of teardrops passing between her eyelids as she forced a grin and said "A daughter shouldn't have to doubt their mother, but…"

"I don't know where you even begin to get the right to judge me Shina Aurora!" Alex's snapped with face fully red with rage, a slight fire burning around his body. Shina stepped back once with fear, then dug her shoe into the ground and looked Alex in the eye sternly.

"I-I wish I could judge you better Alex. I don't want to think the worst of people unless there's absolutely no other choice. Maybe that makes me a hopeful fool, but that's the person I've chosen to be."

"Yeah, 'fool' just about covers it." Alex said, ignoring everything else as his rage took over. Shina stammered a little but the boy pressed on with a finger brandished "From my perspective though, I've seen enough of you to judge YOU for your behavior. So quit pretending like you have some moral high ground over me!"

"T-This isn't about any high ground! Alex, just let this matter end here!" Shina pleaded peacefully as tears continued to trickle. Alex shook his head and his ensuing verbal rampage went unopposed "Lets recap SHALL WE?!" He then started counting away at his raised fingers while staring uncaringly at the sky.

"You need the artifact pieces to get the Cosmos Drive. The artifact pieces and by proxy the Cosmos Drive are in space, which YOU cannot survive in. Ergo, you need ME to get anywhere. And why did you come searching for me, which in turn led to you needing to go after the Cosmos Drive? Oh, that's right…THE FACT YOUR SISTER IS IN TROUBLE!" Alex screamed enough to shake the campus grounds, straining his voice.

Shina gets left stunned, and she laid a hand against her chest as her heart pounded against it painfully. Alex wasn't done though.

"But from the moment you landed on Spyro's world to now, it's been nothing but ADVENTURE and GOOFING OFF, hasn't it?! Newsflash Shina, having a family isn't a right, it's a privilege, and by GOD can that get taken away from you just like THAT!" He snapped his fingers and incinerated a nearby tree to ash. His expression had become fierce, demonic, and frightening to Shina…

"So now you're going to answer ME Shina! Why is it that **I** care more about saving your sister than you do?!" He folded his arms and tapped his foot. Shina immediately replied "I-I love my sister more than anything in the world! I-I've shared precious memories of our time together WITH YOU! H-How can you be so cruel…?"

"What's crueler is calling those memories precious when you're going around these worlds wasting time by acting like a f***ing clown. So yeah, you don't have the right to judge me, sister hater." The next few seconds were but a blur to Alex. He gets slapped so hard across the left cheek that the sound rang through the grounds. Then, with body swerved, he crashed down onto his right hip.

His eyes widened and his cheek throbbed. As he rubbed it with one hand he supported himself with the other and looked up at Shina. Her eyes were now flooded with tears and her lips trembled. She probably couldn't see the shock on his face because of that. Her expression was so delicate, so vulnerable…so cold.

She drew back the hand she slapped with and bit her lower lip, blurting out bitterly "I-I-I l-love…!" She stopped and stood her ground firmly while Alex basked in the presence of her at first gentle rage "No…I'm not going to repeat myself!"

She clenched her fists tightly to the point her skin tightened around the bone. "I-I can't help it…! This is who I am…" She glared Alex down and her face went red "Do you even know who YOU are?! Gaaaah! Are you EVEN an Elemental Overlord?!"

Alex glared and swung a pointer finger out "Now you're just being ridiculous!" while scrambling to his feet. Shina puffed her cheeks as she folded her arms under her chest and turned away.

"W-Well you're the most ridiculously stubborn person I've ever, EVER met!" She blurted childishly. Alex grabbed the sides of his head and growled loudly for a little bit, tempted to tear at his hairs. Then he lashed his arms out and with a furious expression pointed a wiggling finger at Shina and proclaimed "You don't have the right to doubt my title!"

"Really? Cause all I've seen you do is blow hot air!"

"You're just being a child now! Grow up!"

"You don't even know HOW to!"

The two shared a piercing glance for a fleeting moment before they swung their arms up and turned completely away from each other while letting out a disgruntled sigh. Uka looked to Aku, Aku looked to Crash, the bandicoot just scratched the side of his head, and all three were just completely frazzled.

Gritting her teeth hard, Shina turned around and screamed "You know what Alex Whiter?! Y-You're just a big JERK!" She stamps her foot to grab his attention, and when he turns around he can only let out a flustered "N-Now wait just a second…!" It was too late though, as Shina was starting to storm off towards the building.

"Don't you ignore ME! Where do you think you're going?!" Alex swung a pointer finger straight down in a demanding manner, but Shina clenched her fists and replied bluntly "I'm going to find Nina and SHE'LL fix the Psychotron. It's my only chance to save my sister now!"

"And just how are you going to go beyond that, huh? HUH?!" Alex's words fell on deaf ears as she marched on into the building. "You can't ignore your problems SHINA!" He stamped his foot down, gripping his fists at his hips while digging his sole into the dirt. His face, redder than a pepper, matched the spicy aura of fire around his body.

He swung his heads towards the others and exclaimed "Come on?! Can't you say she's being unreasonable?!" He gestured at his chest while forcing a smile. Uka-Uka had up and vanished, and Aku was nudging Crash away from the area. The good mask only looked at the maddened expression Alex wore and shook a bit.

When his company was gone, Alex stayed hunched over gritting his teeth while a growl built up volume inside. Then he closed his mouth and threw his fist against the wall behind him without changing expressions, causing part of it to collapse. Then he lurched his head back and grabbed the sides of it again, exclaiming "What is her deal?!" to the high heavens.

Then, before he could go at the campus grounds in his anger, a quiet ticking noise came from his right pants' pocket. Looking down, a light flushed forth from it. He began to reach for it with a perplexed expression, yet was warped away by a distortion in time and space before he could even touch the object. The world he left behind was frozen completely, with but a hollow wind passing by where he once was…

 _Next Time: Empathy of the Daughter_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: The Other Side of the Coin**

As quickly as he was taken away, Alex emerged from a flash of light thrown a little off-balance. His body lurched forth, vision spinning and head throbbing. He still had enough consciousness to finish reaching for the stone in his pocket and pull it out. It was black and gold with an odd clock etched into it. Perhaps the trip made him dizzy, but he could've sworn the hands on it were moving.

"Alright…just what did you do?" Alex gripped the stone tightly and slid it into his pants. He looked around and saw a few things. A couple couches, a staircase, an average sized television, and the walls appeared to be curved to suggest this was a hut.

"Nghh…" Alex rubbed the back of his head as the area blurred with a monochrome shade. It looked funky, to say the least. "D-Does Crash's house look like this inside? Could've sworn it was…brick-ier." After shaking off his remaining wooziness, Alex tapped the front of his throat and realized his voice was a bit distorted.

When coughing did nothing, it was easy to chalk this up to whatever the heck was going on. With an irritated scowl, he punched the side of the pocket the stone was in and grumbled "If only you could talk…stupid stone."

Standing still for a few more seconds and tapping his foot, Alex sighed and murmured "Guess I'm stuck here for now. I suppose I'll just have to find the point of this nonsense…" There was naught a sound in the house as Alex moved around. He found out one thing quickly, that he couldn't interact with any object, and with arms limp he looked to the ceiling and moaned "Alright, you've had your fun Gaia Temporis, now send me back."

He kept his head held with lips pouted and tapped his foot. The only thing that happened though was the stone ticking slowly and streaks of color belonging to the residents of this house went speeding on by. Alex felt queasy again as time sped by like a roller coaster. With a hand on his stomach, Alex moaned louder "You warped me the last time, come on, stop!"

And just like that, it did! Probably not because he rudely asked though. "G-Good thing I haven't eaten in a while…" Alex groggily stood up and took a couple steps back. The couches were now arranged adjacent to each other. Before even a whisper escaped his lips, Alex suddenly had someone vault over the right couch, going straight through his chest.

"Holy-!" Alex's heart skipped a bit and he wrapped his arms around his chest. When nothing came out, he pulled the limbs away and saw his upper body ripping like a puddle. This brought a mildly perturbed grin to his face.

"O-Ok, so I'm a phantom of time now…What, are you punishing me for that argument? That's pretty cheeky for a stinkin' rock!" What broke him out of his brief panic was the giggle of a little girl. That same girl who just moments ago vaulted through his phantasmal form was now sitting on the couch facing the TV, a familiar black dualshock controller in her hands.

Keeping his cool to process the scene, Alex noticed the girl had shoulder length blonde hair and a loose blue shirt with beige wrinkled shorts. Her bright, cheery smile rung a familiar spark through the boy's mind.

"S-Shina…?" Alex shook his head after a brief widening of his eyes. She was a foot shorter and her voice more childish, but that's all the boy needed. He walked around the couch and got between her and the TV, the controller cord going through his waist.

"Hello? Hey! HEY!" Alex screamed out. Shockingly, nothing happened. Shina then stuck the tip of her tongue out and tapped the buttons on her controller in a fluid rhythm. Turning around, Alex saw on the TV screen the familiar environment of Evening Lake, a place from Spyro's world. As of now, Shina controlled Spyro underwater, guiding him towards the tunnel to Fireworks Factory's portal.

"…Boy this feels surreal now." Alex scratched the side of his head and stepped away to better observe both Shina and the game she played. With a haughty grin and arms folded he said "Look at you…I bet you're shirking your homework, or your household responsibilities."

After a few seconds of watching her gameplay, Alex taps his arms and commented dryly "Geez, how do you take that long to clear the area of Rhynocs…" Shina started humming the theme of the level with bubbly amounts of energy. The boy tapped his fingers at a rhythmic pace and murmured "Ok this is maybe somewhat cute and all but is there a point?"

Now using his ability to put his foot in his mouth to his advantage, Alex starts to hear tiny footsteps climbing down the staircase. A girl just a little smaller than Shina, wearing a green dress that went down to her knees along with some blue jeans, broke into a sprint at the bottom and stood off the left of the closest couch.

"Sis…? Are you playing those 'video games' again?" The girl was soft-spoken and curious, tilting her head and putting a finger on her lips. The pause jingle came from the TV and Shina swerved towards her sis.

"Yeppie yep! Got my homework done last night. How about you?" Shina laid her hands on her crossed legs and leaned forward in anticipation. The other girl answered nervously "U-Uhh…I'm sorry sis, math is reaaaally hard."

"Not gonna argue that. We can work on it later!" Shina sprung her legs out and scooted aside, patting at the cushion rapidly and asking "Come on Kairi, sit next to me!" The little sister hopped on over and climbed onto the couch. Shina put a fluffed pillow behind her and swiped the controller back into her hands.

Alex looked at the little girl and murmured "So that's the so-called precious little sister…" then stuck to paying attention. Kairi squinted her eyes and asked "What game is this supposed to be?" and Shina quickly replied.

"It's called Spyro Year of the Dragon! It's a game where you play as a spunky purple dragon and collect gems and eggs to stop an evil lizard sorceress. You also have the help of a kangaroo, a penguin with a jetpack, a yeti, and a spaceman monkey." Shina spoke so hastily but merrily that Kairi widened her eyes and felt overwhelmed.

"O-Oh…?" When her little mind processed the information, her eyes sparked with childish wonder and she exclaimed "That's right, you told me these are like a playable fairy tale!"

"Well this is the fairiest and the tailiest of them all!" Shina proclaimed as she tapped the pause button. Then without pause of her own she waved the controller at Kairi. With her cheeks bright and rosy, the little sister pointed at herself and said "I-I can't play Shina. I've never t-touched a video game before…"

"Ya can't say you can't play until you've tried sis! I'll be your little Navi, alright?" Shina raised a finger up as she talked, slowly leaning closer with an eager grin. Kairi inquired "Who's Navi?" and with spunk she got a reply of "I'll show you later."

"O-Ok! I'll do it sis!" Kairi firmly nodded her head and after one motion of hesitation grabbed the controller in her shaking hands and turned to the TV. Shina went over the controls and the game was continued once Shina playfully poked the button with a prick of aura. Kairi's eyes widened as she was thrust into a swarm of Rhynocs. Her pupils stayed enlarged as she charged through the level left and right, a couple times almost throwing Spyro into the lava. Yet through a combination of energetic advice from Shina and the music grabbing her attention, Kairi is able to clear a good chunk of the level on her own.

"W-Wow…!" The little sister's gasp of awe was followed by a swift pat on the back from Shina. So engorged in the energy she felt, Kairi meekly squeaked and the controller flew from her hands, smashing through a vase on the table. The sisters widened their eyes, with Shina letting out a shrill "Ah, shit!" while her teeth clattered into a grin.

"S-SIS! That's not appropriate!" Kairi said in a panic. Swinging her hands around, Shina proclaimed "N-Never mind! I'll tell mom what happened, it's my fault anyways! Keep playing, I'll clean this up!" She quickly went to work cleaning up the mess while tossing the controller back to Kairi.

Alex grinned and chuckled "Heh, a screw up even back then. Well…Guess she was just a kid enjoying her childhood." After a glance aside, Alex let out a perturbed grumble. The ticking of a clock was heard again, with the area once more distorting as time and space advanced. Alex closed his eyes until he was done being warped.

"Alright, now I should back at the academy…" When he opened his eyes though, he was greeted by the hustle and bustle of dozens of people going through a hallway filled with lockers. Irritatingly glaring at his pocket he proclaimed "WRONG ACADEMY!"

Then he tried to lean back against the lockers only to phase through it and fall onto his back. With a jolt to his head, Alex grumbled "Fine…I'll keep playing your little game Gaia Temporis. What are you trying to show me NOW?" As he stood up, the hallway was a lot emptier than it was before. Only a few students were left, the most notable of them being a slightly older Shina. Her long hair was bundled into a ringed pigtail around the back of her head. Her shirt and pants were more in line with what she wore in the present though, and she had books bundled against her undeveloped chest.

She was speaking to a boy her age, a simple friendly conversation to be sure, but it was still surprising from Alex's perspective. In a couple ways, the boy's appearance mirrored Alex's, but he seemed more laid-back. Passing the boy off as pointless, Alex looked at Shina and noticed something a bit off. It wasn't obvious, but there were a couple bags under her eyes.

"…That's strange." He said, yet his thoughts were brought to a half when another person approached Shina from behind. They were a little bigger than the two, but that was due with their sports gear. With a firm poke on her back Shina turned to face the guy. Beside his grin his face was hidden, yet Shina just fluttered her eyelashes while asking politely "Yes?"

"So you're Shina Aurora right?" The guy's gruff inquiry was met with a nod from Shina. With a snobby chuckle the guy said "Awesome. So hey…" Turning around, the guy picked up a trash can as tall as himself. It was filled to the brim with balls of different sizes, and judging by the thud it made as he put it down there were some pretty heavy ones inside.

"Coach asked us to clean all the balls, but we're actually going to just…you know, ditch this joint and go have a party. So if you would just be a doll and clean these for us that'd be great." His tone was needlessly smug. Shina's friend stood forward and said "Now hold-"

"Sure! I can do that for ya!" Shina spoke without hesitation. The friend and Alex widened their eyes while the jock patted Shina on her right cheek and said "Knew I could count on you. We'll see these in our gym tomorrow, ok?" The jock then scrammed, Shina's friend clenching his fist and swinging it up ready to sock him as he passed.

However, Shina just shrugged her shoulders and said in a chipper tone "Better get started then!" She then made a backpack of aura to put her books in, freeing her arms to wrap around the trash can. She tries to lift it, but even with a few grunts it only budged a couple inches.

"Wow…!" She swiped her forehead and proclaimed "These are pretty heavy." The friend frowned and said "Shinster come on now, he's taking advantage of you, that's not right."

Shina tried to lift it again without saying anything. Alex looked at her and with audible disgust said "What the heck are you doing…?" The friend approached from the side and held his hand out "At least let me help you."

Shina turned with a smile on her sweating face and said "Bobby, he didn't ask you to do it. I appreciate the offer though." As she looked at the trash can and thought how to handle it, Bobby clenched his fists and said firmly "You think that guy's going to thank you for this? You can't let him walk over you, you don't owe him anything!"

Closing her eyes, Shina sighed and asked nonchalantly "Bobby, what do you think I should do here?" Simultaneously, him and Alex exclaimed "Shina, give up!" There was a pause as Shina raised a hand to her chin and started rubbing it.

"Give up, eh? …I don't think that's a good solution." She still stayed cheerful, and this time the boy stamped his foot down and exclaimed her name loud enough to echo through the empty halls. He had to catch his breath after that, but this time Shina turned with a more relaxed expression on her face.

"Bobby, I know what's going on here. That jock thinks I can't do it…." Her tone was calmer, yet switched to humored as she grinned at her friend and said "But don't YOU think he'll at least reconsider what he did when I actually bring a clean can of balls in tomorrow?"

"It's not worth losing anymore sleep over Shina. At LEAST ask your mom-" Shina slowly shook her head and replied "I'm a big girl Bobby, I can take care of my own problems. No one else should have to shoulder my burdens, least of all my mom."

Folding her arms back, Shina looked up and out the sunset bathed windows, explaining calmly "You know my sister, right? She's got a natural talent for aura, she gets decent grades, and she's as cute as a button…But she doesn't believe in herself enough. So it's my job as her big sis to be that pillar of confidence she can lean on…At least until she's ready to climb to the top and find her own confidence waiting for her there."

With a slight twirl Shina said "And when she can lift her head up proud as can be and smile…Well, that'll just be the best darn memory to look back on now won't it?" As she giggled unbefittingly to her words, Bobby scratched the side of his head and loosely said "So you can't give up for her sake. Heh, well alright Shinster…I'll leave you to this then. Just holler if you want any snacks though, in case you need your spirits lifted."

"Thanks Bobby, I really appreciate it." Shina was more relaxed now, her expression focused as she turned towards the can with an idea sparked from the last thing her friend said. Alex, gripping his arms without realizing it, wanted to see the scene play out more, yet once again the Gaia Temporis had other plans. Time sped forth, taking the boy away from this period as he widened his eyes in shock then swiftly closed them.

"S-So what…?" He stammered "She's clearly not thinking that way now!" he could barely say that with confidence as his knees shook. Even at that age, Shina's words were resonating with him in a manner he couldn't describe.

He didn't bother trying to demand the Gaia Temporis send him back. He knew he was stuck on it's train ride whether he wanted off or not. Suddenly, the trip through time and space halted, dropping Alex off in a kitchen. This was the kitchen of the house he was in earlier, but this time the distortion of the environment was gone and Alex found himself feeling the cold tile countertop to the left of his arm.

After jerking back he thought _"What? Now I'm solid again? Make up your frickin' mind stone!"_ Since his ability to stay hidden was gone, the boy cautiously peeked past the door frame into the living room. A woman of noticeable beauty sat on the couch. Her hair was pristine and teal, with a slight bang of pink on the front. She wore a robe that complimented her curves, and yet at the moment she was hunched over and looked melancholy.

Biting his lower lip, Alex briefly imagined a brown cloak over the woman and pulled back, his heart thumping against his chest. "T-That's her…the woman from the past." He whispered in fright. He gleamed past the door again and saw Shina walking down the staircase. She was now the age the boy was familiar with, and she looked at the woman in surprise.

"Mom?" Shina's remark in turn caused Alex's eyes to widen as he grit his teeth and thought _"THAT'S Shina's mom?! What the FU-"_ He swung his arms out but almost knocked a pan off the counter. Not wanting to break the space-time continuum, Alex just stood still and tried his best to listen in on the conversation. He had missed the beginning, but they appeared to be talking about Shina's sister.

"If I do this, we'll be free. You, me, Kairi, and everyone else too…!" Shina spoke with the determination Alex had come to expect. The older woman nodded and replied "You have thought this through all day…There's nothing I can say to sway you. But even so, do you believe this will be that easy?"

"Even if it's not, I have to try. I mean…the Elemental Overlord was the legendary hero who never lost to the darkness!" Shina pumped her fists before her chest, and with a widening of his eyes Alex thought _"That's right, she sought me out first."_

Alex thought nothing else until Shina said "I-I'm a big girl, I can handle myself." He had already heard that once before, though this time there was something off about the tone. Even as he reflected on that while Auris spoke preciously to her daughter, Alex could only grit his teeth and struggle to determine what.

" _W-Why should I care anyways?!"_ Yet, despite his cold denial, his head did perk up when Shina said "You and sis are the most precious things in the world to me." There was something very genuine about that statement. Alex couldn't peg why he thought differently of her saying that now when she had said it plenty of times before.

He picks up slightly on how the prior glimpses to the past had a connection in the form of the care Shina had towards her sister. _"Was I…wrong about her?"_ He shook his head and pulled away from the door right as Shina took off with that strange device. He laid one hand on the side of his head and murmured "No, it doesn't make any sense…! If she cared so much about her family, then she wouldn't be acting like a clown!"

With his anger stubbornly creating denial where there didn't need to be any, Alex shook his head a little bit. What he was thinking deep down, however, pitifully worked it's way past that rage. _"I still don't understand you, Shina Aurora…"_ That single thought was quickly buried as Alex swung his arms about and then went right for the Gaia Temporis, pulling it out in front of his face in a panic. Eyes wide with madness, the boy grit his teeth and said "Alright you stupid rock, enough games! Take me back, now!"

"Hehehe…Ensnared by the whimsy of the Temporis, aren't you?" A tantalizing taunting tone suddenly sent a jolt through Alex's body as he swung to the left and saw the woman leaning against the edge of the counter, giving a coy grin as she gently waved down at him.

"ACK!" Alex shot upright and fumbled his left arm on the counter, pushing aside a couple pans as his eyes widened. The woman slowly stood up as the boy grabbed his beating chest. She was just a little bit taller than Shina, and like her daughter she had a warm presence to her. She gave Alex a smile and held a hand out.

"Before you damage my dishes, maybe you'd prefer we talk in the living room?" The woman stayed relaxed, unnaturally so, and kept her hand held out. The boy, coming to grips with his initial shock, let out a hefty sigh and grumbled "I see two-thousand years hasn't changed you…"

"Let's just say that's a compliment and leave it at that." The woman smirk and turned towards the living room, brushing the sleeve of her robe out to guide Alex her way. Putting the stone away, he followed her into the living room as she laid back against the couch. She rested her arms on the back of it and glanced at Alex, a more relaxed expression on her face.

"Auris Aurora." She said suddenly, garnering a puzzled expression from the boy as she sat down. With a smile she said "I do believe I was prevented from saying that last time."

"…You could've left your name on the note my past self would see in the future. That hurt my head just SAYING that." Alex leaned back and groaned. Auris gestured as she replied curtly "Well I DID say we'd potentially meet again. "

With a roll of his eyes he grumbled "So you did…" he then held a hand out and asked "So are you here to tell me how to get back to the my present?" Auris shrugged and remarked "Now why are you in a rush to return? By all means, you're losing no time being here."

"Because I've been dragged through time against my will?" He replied in frustration. Auris tapped her throat and coughed, quickly and mockingly trying to match Alex's masculine tone and rage "What is her deal?!"

Alex widened his eyes with an embarrassed blush while Auris grinned. "T-That…that was scarily accurate." Auris rested her hands on her chin and leaned forward, giving the boy an odd glance. Alex blinked and asked "Are…are you ok?"

"You've grown up…You look a little more like him now." She sighed and her head shook slightly. "But that's not enough if the mind does not match the body. However, I know my time with you is limited, so I shall not waste it with an unnecessary lecture."

Sitting back upright, Auris pointed at the boy and said in an alluring tone "I pose you one question…Are you satisfied with what you have found out?" Alex scratched the side of his head and said "I-I'm not sure..."

"I think you could at least agree she's a real sweetheart, yes?" Auris replied in pride.

"She's practically giving me diabetes." Alex stuck his tongue out in nasally disgust. Auris nodded her head "You could say that's her biggest flaw. It's very difficult for her to shut off that part of her personality."

Fiddling her fingers above her legs, she continued "Once, she even leapt into a fire at her school to save some people trapped inside. How a girl like her was born from her parents, I'll never know."

"Is her father a bad man?" Alex's inquiry was met with a sore grumble from Auris. The boy leaned back and shut up. Closing her eyes, Auris clasped her hands and said confidently "Your next line is…'Auris, why did you want Shina to find me?'"

"W-What? I mean y-yes but…" Alex stuttered and glanced away, and with a playful chuckle Auris laid a hand against her lips to reply "It's a simple answer really. I have plenty of faith in my daughter's capabilities…She is wise beyond her years, and stronger than she gives herself credit for. Yet, none of that matters without experience. That's what you have to offer."

"I'm sure you could've found someone better suited for the job." Alex murmured. At that point he was surprised as Auris walked over to him and held a hand out. "Stand up. I want to show you something." Holding his hand out into her delicate, cold grasp, the boy replied "O-Ok…" and hesitantly stood up.

Auris turned his gloved hand around and rested a finger on his palm, smiling warmly while telling him "You stopped the Dark King, you defeated your evil clone…" She then raised that finger to his nose and said with a glance into his eyes full of confidence "Does that not mean you have experience?"

Alex looked into her beautiful eyes, a part of her reminding him of his mother, and with teeth grit he said "So what? My clone saved the universe."

"Rest assured, I'll have him do something for me later down the road. I chose YOU for this, Alex Whiter. Your mind may be clouded with doubt and fear, but it's not so thick that a light cannot shine through it."

"Just as you can help her, she can help you. It may not seem like it with how your personalities have clashed so far, but it's not as though it's too late to try again. What you do from here, well…That's all up to you. I can't offer you anymore advice than that."

Auris let go of Alex's hand and took a step back. The boy lowered his head and said "…I-I have to think about this a bit." The woman nodded and said "When the Gaia Temporis sends you back, you'll be given plenty of time to stew over what you've seen."

Alex reached into his pockets and pulled out said stone for Auris. "So is there actually a way to time travel on my own?" The woman shook her head and said "I'm afraid that's something she won't let you get away, no matter how much you ask. Like I said, Temporis is very whimsical. It moves with it's flow."

"…She?" Alex tilted his head, getting hit with the full blunt of the light that emerged from the Gaia Temporis. He reeled back and found himself slowly being consumed by the glow. Auris laid a hand on her lips and said "Case in point."

Before he was gone, Auris looked him straight and the eyes and said "Now then, take care, Alex Whiter. Oh, but one thing…" Her warmth turned burning hot as she glared into his shrinking pupils with the fury of a hundreds suns. Yet her tone remained calm as she said "If you try anything with my daughter, neither soul shields nor Gaia Temporis shall protect you."

Instilled briefly with fear, Alex was warped away through time and space in the middle of his gulp. Left alone, Auris closed her eyes and grabbed her right arm. "As you currently sleep within the boy, my love, I can only hope that what I said was enough…" Her mind, wrapped in melancholy, would not know rest for a couple more years…

 _Next Time: A Sister's Plea_


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Escape from the Academy**

Within the dark, grimly lit halls of the Academy of Evil, the doors rattled while the bookshelves filled with mischievous spells and vile deeds shook, struggling to stay balanced. The little monster students, usually dutiful to their mayhem, ran for shelter in their rooms as the shaking continued to advance through their facility.

They had no idea that it was Shina responsible for the tremors. With face steaming red she clenched her fists and stomped her way through the area.

"Ooooooh that Alex Whiter! He's got sooooooome nerve being such a big, big…" She stops and thinks about the perfect way to express for her feelings. Lifting her head and squinting her eyes, she screamed "Jerky Jerk McJerkFace!"

She then lowered her head and let out a puff of hot air to blow away some stray hairs. Meanwhile, a curious little werewolf and vampire poked their heads out, giving each other a frightened look and saying "I-I'm scared…" Their hearts nearly burst from their chests as Shina glared over her shoulder and exclaimed "And what are you miscreants looking at?!"

They screamed and slammed the door shut to escape. After flaring her nostrils twice, Shina's felt her chest tightening as the fear on those kids' faces reflected in her mind. She gripped her shirt with one hand and rested the other on her churning stomach before murmuring apologetically "I'm sorry…I-I didn't mean to…"

When she knew they wouldn't hear her, Shina fell back and ended up leaning against a moldy wall. Breathing deeply, she spread the fingertips of a hand across her forehead and said "Get a hold of yourself Shina, you would never yell at children…"

The smell of mold quickly got her to pull away squeamishly, and she swiped at her hair to try and throw the mold off. Frantic at first, her movements slowed down as her thoughts continued to linger on her argument with Alex. Hanging her head, she muttered "Why are you letting what he said get to you? He's just a big, stupid, UNGRATEFUL dummy head!"

She stamped her foot down and then folded her arms under her chest, glancing around and continuing her tirade "How could he stand there and call me uncaring? I'M the one who chose to brave the harsh depths of space for my sister! How can he say he cares more about my sister when he hasn't even met her! I bet he doesn't even have a sister, he's the real sister hater here, HARUMPH!"

She swung her head to the right with a rough pout of the lips. Tapping her fingers against an elbow, her heart again felt heavy. Closing her eyes, she saw herself face-to-face with her smiling sister again. She wanted to smile herself, but her effort was half-baked. Instead, she whispered "Sis, I know you can't hear me but…You know I would never stop loving you, right?"

The visage of her in Shina's head nodded, bringing a more genuine smile to her face, if only for a bit. Shina tensely grabbed her upper arms and murmured "…I wonder if maybe, just maybe…I'm in over my head here." She chuckled and lifted her head up, a blank look in her eyes.

"I know, I know…This isn't like me, sis. I'll be fine now though. I shouldn't have tried to have someone else carry my burdens." With a grumpy frown she said with disdain "Especially a big ol' meanie like Alex. Sister hating JERK!"

With one last act of venting, Shina unfolded her arms and slammed a fist down on an open palm. As she firmly nodded her head she exclaimed "Alright, I can do this! No obstacle is too hard to overcome for one fighting for family!" As she pumped a fist up she made a swerve and exclaimed "First Nina, then the two artifact pieces, and finally I'll go save my sister!"

Before she went down the next hall though, her path was blocked by a perplexed Uka-Uka. The mask remarked bluntly "You off-worlders have some serious problems." Shina paused and folded her arms again, asking snidely "Oh, did _**Alex**_ send you?"

"You think I could POSSIBLY care even an IOTA about your little lovers' spat?!" Uka exclaimed while getting very close to Shina's face. The girl pushed the mask by the forehead and replied sternly "We're not even friends! So if you aren't here cause of him…"

"Look, I just want to see the niece. Who knows, maybe, JUST maybe she'll be worth more to me than that idiot Cortex." When Uka explained himself Shina went "Oh…" and eased up. Walking past the mask she said "Well hopefully the commotion I've caused didn't scare her off."

"I'll say, you were blabbering like a loon." Uka-Uka followed her as she continued through the Academy. It was pretty easy to navigate through the linear halls, and prior knowledge of the world meant Shina didn't have to check any doors along the way for Nina's room. The very last door, in the deepest and darkest reaches of the academy, was where the two's trip came to an end.

Shina creaked the door open and went inside. Only the pale light of the full moon poked through the tattered curtains, revealing a barely made bed with cobwebs between the holes in the sheets. There were some beakers on a rickety cupboard, a picture of Cortex put beside them in a crooked frame. Shina breathed in the smell of molding cheese and let out a "Bleh…" before commenting "I've never seen a filthier room in my life."

"Ah, what a vile smell! I-It almost makes me feel a bit nostalgic…" Uka said, his wooden features creaking up to try and smile. Shina shrugged and moved towards the bed. On there is a cardboard cut-out of a girl with bucked teeth, pale grey skin, big metal hands, and a simple gothic student uniform.

Uka floated up to the cut-out and said "Who does she think she's trying to fool?" Boards creaked behind Shina, who just cracked a slight smile and giggle before lifting her hand up and summoning her rapier over the shoulder, putting the tip of the blade a foot away from the approaching person's forehead.

"Ya thought you'd prank us, didn't ya?" Shina said in a humored tone before swerving and dispelling her rapier. She put her arms back as she looked at the surprised Nina in the face. The girl's appearance mimicked the cut-out near perfectly, except the real deal had a red metal lowercase "n" grafted to her forehead. Nina's dotted eyes showed little surprise as she stood up and leaned her metal knuckles against her hips.

"Wait, you're not Uncle Cortex." Nina spoke with a noticeable lisp. With a shake of her head the niece snapped her fingers and said "No matter." Shina's then shocked when a rope ties itself around her legs and hauls her upside-down off the ground. She quickly holds her shirt down as blood and adrenaline rushed to her head.

Nina then flipped a hand over to reveal a miniature device with a button on it. Pressing it opened up a hole in the ground leading straight to a pool filled with mutant robot sharks with the buffest arms and largest possible laser turrets on their heads. Uka-Uka squealed in delight before looking at Nina and exclaiming "You're HIRED!"

"And just who are you?" Nina raised a brow and barely acknowledged the mask's presence. Uka-Uka grinned and said "I am the great and powerful Uka-Uka! Fear and tremble at my presence! BOW before my fearsome mighty, and worship-"

"Oh…so you're basically that gigantic joke everyone's talking about. The door's that way, loser." Nina barely mustered a thumbs back as Uka-Uka's mouth went agape. Furiously, he began to float towards Nina while exclaiming "Now listen here you insolent brat, how DARE you-" He ends up being pinned to a wall by Nina firing her right hand off. It was still attached to the rest of her arm by a steel coil. She then rolled her eyes and looked at a gently swaying Shina.

"Just letting you know ahead of time, I CAN fly." She said nonchalantly. Nina replied snappily "Well, that's what the lasers are for. Now start talking, what are you doing here?"

Without trying to escape, Shina relayed all she could to Nina. When she is done, Nina gives her a suspecting glance and abridged the info "So Uncle Cortex was kidnapped by a pair of parrots because some moody 14-year old tied up and delivered him like a Christmas present?"

"That's the gist of it!" Shina proclaimed as she started to feel a bit dizzy. Nina replied "Guess that explains the lack of visits" while rubbing her chin. Shina grinned and stuttered "H-He was also trapped in ice for a while."

"So you want me to come with you and fix his Psychotron?" Nina's interest seemed slightly piqued, and Shina rapidly nodded her head until the girl told her "And just what do I get out of this, hmm?"

"I-I'm sorry?" Shina stopped, left perplexed as Nina continued on "Uncle Cortex's taught me a lot, but if he's out of the picture then I can FINALLY take over his experiments and start my reign as Queen of the world! Mwahahaha!" Her childish laughter carried the same maniacal-ness to it as her uncle's, and Uka-Uka could be heard letting out a muffled cry of joy.

"… _Oh right, I forgot she's still a wicked little child…"_ Shina grimly realized. Taking in a deep breath, she tried to relax _"Ok Shina, focus…You can work with this."_

With a slightly pleading tone she said "But you can't rule the world if there isn't one! Those Evil Twins are going to destroy it!" Nina nodded her head and said "True, true…I've always wanted some subjects groveling at my feet."

"A-And the Evil Twins have some treasure on them! You could always use that to fund your world conquering exploits!" Shina tried to sell her desperation perfectly, and as Nina kept nodding her interest manifested in a wide grin.

"Treasure eh? A bounty fit for a queen…So hey, is Uncle Cortex's blimp still outside the academy?" Shina nodded her head, and instantly Nina dropped the button and turned for the door. "Then why do I need you? I'll just go beat those birds on my own. With your weight the rope should snap in three minutes, so have fun with the sharks."

" _Oh shoot!"_ Shina widened her eyes and then focused hard, shutting her eyelids with great intensity and causing a wall of aura to shoot up in front of the door. She also blocked the window out, replacing the light of the moon with the luminosity of her aura. Nina took pause and then pulled her metallic hand away from Uka-Uka, sending it flying right at the aura. Even as the impact shook her room, she didn't leave a crack on it.

With a curious glance as she turned, Nina asked "Now how'd you do that?" Struggling to keep herself together as her vision started to shake, Shina answered "L-Look, I could force you to help me, but that's not who I am…Isn't there any, ANY good in your heart that would be willing to listen?"

"This isn't Ms. Butterscotch's Academy for Goodie Two-Shoes, you know." Was Nina's brazen response and she laid her hands atop each other. Shina bit her lower lip and with a hefty swing forward she proclaimed "T-Then I'll do something for you! If you need help with like homework, dinner, applying mascara, anything, you name it!"

"So you're basically offering to be my servant?" Nina cracked a tiny grin. "Iiiiinteresting." She then rubbed her hands together with a mischievous smirk. Shina widened her eyes in with her face fraught with worry.

"Alright, you can start by barking like a dog." Nina planted her fists against her hips and smiled. Shina went "W-What?" in disbelief but the niece swayed her fingers out haughtily and said "Dogs don't say 'What' they say 'Yip'."

Shina grit her teeth and gulped a little. _"I-I'm doing this for sis…I-It's fine…"_ Even as her vision got worse and her face turned reddish, the girl curled her tongue against the roof of her mouth and let out a shrill "Y-Yip!" Nina snapped her fingers and said "Again, with feeling!"

The girl closed her eyes and did it again forcibly. Nina demanded a few more, getting increasingly humored with each "Yip!" There didn't seem to be an end in sight, and the pain of being upside-down along with this absurd humiliation left a stressful feeling on Shina's body.

" _I…I just have to keep doing this and she'll help, right?"_ Shina opened her eyes and saw Nina on the ground cracking up like mad. Shina's face froze up a bit in distraught, and those laughs began to echo painfully. Gritting her teeth, something inside of her suddenly snapped.

With eyes widened furiously, Shina stuttered "E-Enough!" and swung her hand up to summon her rapier. A swift cut set her free, and she flipped around to land on the ground while brandishing the blade at Nina. Shina was a bit disoriented and thus began panting heavily, but with teeth grit she said "Y-You're a villain! I don't have to give you anything! I-I'm going to save my sister gosh darn it, even if I have to drag you back to the Psychotron kicking and screaming!"

Nina gave her a surprised glance and stood right up. With a smirk, she said in a tone surprisingly complimenting for her "Wow, so you DO have some backbone." Shina huffed and puffed yet kept the rapier tip near Nina's face. The girl said without fear "Well, you foiled my only trap, so what the heck…I'll let you come along to the Psychotron."

Shina's attitude did a complete reversal as her eyes lit up and she cried out "R-Really?!" Nina however pointed at her and said "But don't try and boss me around. We'll be doing things my way." Shina wasn't going to disagree now. With a nod, she put down the aura walls and Nina leaped for the window.

"We can take a shortcut through the rooftops. Come on lackey!" Nina leaped out while Shina glanced aside and whispered "I'll take what I can get…" As she went to the window she pumped a fist before her chest with a rush of energy through her body "I don't know why, but that felt really good!"

She went out the window, Uka-Uka coming to and looking around quickly. With an exclamation of "Oh come on now!" he flew after the two. The unlikely duo leaped across the rickety rooftops, Nina using her gauntlets to grapple across the walls and floating rings. It only took a couple minutes before they had returned to the main building near the campus. Nina shattered a half-broken window and leaped inside.

"We just got to get through the Headmaster's room and we're home free. Come on." Nina rushed through the hallway towards a grisly room with a green glow to it. As Shina followed, the floor gave way to a path of giant gold organ pipes suspended over a pool of a strange, wobbly green liquid. There were some towering torches positioned near the cathedral-like strain glassed windows around the room, giving this room an eerier look than normal.

"Oh good, tubby's not around. Maybe she finally croaked." Nina smirked as she crossed the organ pipes, while Shina counted down from three with her fingers. When she was done she snapped to the left and suddenly a person of considerable girth dangled down from the ceiling. Like seriously, even if you fused Dingodile, Papu Papu and that Chef Walrus from Chapter 7 together, they would not even come close to…

…Ahem, aaaaaaanyways…

So this tub of lard, barely suspended by three steel ropes attached to her back, wore a grisly black witch's robe and had a puffy head shaped like a rocket. She seemed incapable of smiling and had a monocle on her right eye and a big red "A" on her forehead.

"Well well, if it isn't my most despicable student Nina Cortex." She spoke in a thick Scandinavian accent as her body bounced around a little. Nina and Shina looked to the hefty heifer and Nina clenched her metal fists and said "Unfortunately, old Amberly's still kicking."

"And what made you suddenly decide barging into my office was ok?" Amberly sternly glared at the two. Shina blurted out honestly "Oh, Nina's going to help me save the world!" Nina flinched and glared at her, getting a shrug for a response.

"Don't shrug me lackey!" She blurted out while swinging her arm.

"Ohohoho! Say it's not so? The vile and cruel Nina has finally shown weakness." Amberly's laughter jiggled her gelatinous frame. Nina exclaimed "Ah can it ya old hag! For your information I'm going to conquer the world!"

"Funny you say that, I recall a little yellow baby who cried the same thing before he ran away." Amberly leaned back and looked carelessly at her glove, continuing with a scoff "And look where HE ended up. A shameful wreck of a 'man'."

"And just WHO do you think is to blame for that?!" Suddenly Uka-Uka comes blaring into the room, flying straight into Amberly's face. With a confused glanced past him she asked "Who's the toothpick?"

"I…am the great and mighty Uka-Uka! And YOU are a pathetic excuse for an evil teacher!" Amberly pulled back and said "Excuse me?! Where does a puny pathetic plank like you get the RIGHT to boss me around?!"

"I don't know…Who gave your whale of a mother the right to birth your sorry butt?!"

"How dare you! I'm much more vile than a useless piece of wood! You're a joke, Uka-Uka!"

"I was terrorizing this world before your wrinkly great-great-great GRANDPARENTS were conceived! I bet you don't even have a proper degree for teaching evil!"

"I put in plenty of years of hard work! You can't do anything without manipulating some pinheaded idiots!" Amberly was starting to get really furious, and Uka-Uka smirked and told her "Well maybe if you weren't so incompetent, Cortex wouldn't have become such a failure!"

Suddenly, Amberly's eyes turned red and a thick purple aura surrounded her body. Shina swung her arm out and drew her rapier while proclaiming "Uka, watch out!" The mask looked back with a puzzled raise of his brows only for Amberly to take her hands up and zap him hard with raging strands of electricity. The mask can only lament his fate as he's thrown against a wall.

Nina widens her eyes and says "Whoa whoa whoa, what's going on?!" Shina quickly said "I'll tell you later!" as Amberly looms over them with gloves chirping with electricity.

"The two of you are in detention! Now… _accept your punishment!_ " Her voice echoed as she sent out two powerful blasts of electricity that destroyed the organ pipes leading to the exits. Nina fired her right fist and punched Amberly in the face, knocking her back.

"Whatever, every Queen has to topple authority sometime in her life! Hey lackey, cut her ropes!" Shina glanced at her and exclaimed "That would kill her!"

"Did I say no talking back you idiot?! Just trust me!" Nina had to leap to the right as Amberly sent a lightning bolt at the pipe's lid, opening it up to summon a plume to acidic gas. The niece grabbed the top of the closest lid half and punched it off, flinging it right at Amberly's chest. The lid bounced off it and flew right towards Shina. She leaned to the left to dodge it and then grit her teeth, pointing the rapier at one of the ropes.

" _Focus, you can do this!"_ She let go of the rapier to send it flying at one of the ropes. Amberly flew back and shot a lightning bolt up to knock the weapon out of the sky. Shina called it back before it fell into the liquid, swinging it in front of her to absorb the electricity fired her way after. The force of the lightning pushed her back to the edge of the pipe.

She grinned and let herself fall back, much to Nina's surprise. "Are you nuts?!" She turned around as Amberly used her electricity to draw in some bells. With an evil chuckle Amberly threw them at Nina all at once. Winding up her metallic fists, she fired them and pulled them back rapidly to punch the bells back at Amberly. When all of them were sent back the Headmaster was spun around, revealing an electrical device the ropes were connected to.

Shina suddenly flew up from behind the pipes and said "Thanks for the opening!" to a puzzled Nina. "What?! What?!" She proclaimed as Shina charged at the ropes and cut right through them all. Gravity cruelly dragged Amberly towards the liquid as Shina flipped back onto the pipes right next to Nina. With a frown Shina looked away and dispelled her blade.

"I wish there was another way…" Nina then socked her one in the shoulder, telling her bluntly "Will you get over that already? We didn't kill her. The floor is filled with Jell-o."

Shina looked down and saw Amberly slowly being sucked into the gelatinous mixture, her flab causing the Jell-o to make a wiggly "Shlurp" as she swings her arms out and proclaimed dramatically "NOOOOOOO! My diet is ruined! What a world…what a wooooorld!" Halfway into the gelatin, Amberly started shoveling it into her mouth while whimpering in forced delight. Truly a pitiful sight…

"Oh…well that's fine by me!" Shina cheered up and the two left Amberly behind. Uka kept up after tending to his wounded pride. Past the office, it was just a short stroll until they were back in the main grounds of the Academy. The blimp was still anchored close by. As Nina started to climb the chain Shina looked over the balcony and saw no one around. She frowned a bit until Nina proclaimed "Hey, lackey, hurry up!"

Shina turned around and leaped onto the chain, climbing her way back up to the blimp. Inside, Crash and Aku were seen lounging around, the bandicoot playing with a yo-yo with great interest. Nina widened her eyes and said "So you're the bandicoot Uncle's always had trouble with." She walked up to Crash and stared into his blank eyes while rubbing her chin.

"I really don't see it…Oh well, you can work for me now too…Crash was it?" The bandicoot smiled dopily. "Riiiight…" Then she looked at Aku-Aku, who commented "So you're Cortex's niece Nina. I appreciate you coming along."

"Yeah yeah, I'm not doing charity work here." She brushed the mask off and went for the steering wheel of the blimp. With a grin Nina said nostalgically "Haven't flown this thing in ages. Hopefully it operates the same."

While she was working that out, Aku looked at Shina and asked "Alex has not returned?" The girl closed her eyes and let out a dry hum. The mask did his own hum of deep thought and then commented "I will stay behind and look for him. I trust you and Crash can handle the Evil Twins."

Shina held one arm and replied quietly "I can't stop you Aku…" As the blimp shook from the anchor retracting into it, the good mask nodded to the bandicoot and then flew out. Leaving the Academy behind, Nina managed to perfectly guide the blimp back to Cortex's lab with some guidance from Shina. Then it was just a simple stroll back to the Psychotron before Nina got to work.

"Wow, you guys really did a number on this…But if I just readjust the flux capacitor, fix the transmogrifier, and put these loose wires back in…" Nina murmured to herself while working hard on the machine. Shina pointed down at the still frozen Coco and asked "Can you do something about her? She's a genius like you."

"Ha! No one's a genius LIKE me. Buuuuut, if I somehow can't pull it off, some extra brain power wouldn't hurt." However, it only took a couple minutes after for Nina to repair the Psychotron. The energies in the center of the room stabilize in a perfect flux. Nina clapped her hands and said "Piece of cake! Alright lackey, now what?"

"Cortex already had the machine set up. You just got to press a button."

Nina turned around and did just that. The energies of the Psychotron whirled to life, spinning around and around, faster and faster as the whole laboratory started to be surrounded in a distorting light. Shina clenched her fist and thought _"Alright, just got to get this piece from the Evil Twins and-"_

Suddenly a red light flared up across the room. Nina turned around suddenly and exclaimed "W-What's going on? What do you mean 'Dimensional Error'?!" Shina couldn't even let out a gasp of surprise before the entire laboratory was warped away, leaving only a medium-sized rift in it's place…

 _Next Time: Yarr Harr Harr_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Scourge of the Seventh Sea Dimension**

Back on the campus grounds, Alex was suddenly warped back his prior destination. He stumbled back and tripped over the wall he broke, falling into the dusty brick pile. With just a little bruised skin to his name, Alex slowly lifted the Gaia Temporis and said "…If you're a girl, at least it explains the finickiness…" With a grumble he stood up and put the stone in his pants, that revelation weighing little on his mind.

Looking around, Alex noticed the campus was still empty. All he had for company were the sounds of the acidic fountain and the occasional hoots and howls. He gave a deep sigh and rested against a wicked oak tree, placing his hands in his pockets.

"Now what do I do…?" He fidgeted his fingers and looked at the blimp. "Can't go join up with the others without running into Shina." Thinking on that, he grit his teeth and let out a loud 'Tsk!'

"Why should I care? If I want to be around Crash and the others, I will!" Alex swung his head up with an arrogant "Hmph!" He tapped his arm and after a little more thought he snarled his lips and murmured "Then again...Shina will join back up with them eventually…"

"And if SHE wants to use an alternate means of transportation, then the Whiter Express has no obligation to stick around!" Alex tapped a foot on the ground as his thoughts churned both his heart and stomach with a helping of sorrow.

"…But where am I supposed to go?" When that led to him considering going back to Plit, he imagined Alpha taking in the information and rubbing his forehead with a sigh of _"…Really Alex?"_

When he imagined going back to his Earth for even a second, he shook his head and shoo'd the thoughts away like a pesky fly. He grumbled "This is ridiculous…" and lazily rested his arms against his hips while sinking into a slump.

As his body drooped towards the ground he stared blankly at the dark sky and said "Maybe I should have Cortex turn me into a…" He widened his eyes a bit and dully said "…Oh wait, I can't even do THAT!"

With a groan that could be mistaken for a monster's howl, Alex laid on the moist grass and lingered on his thoughts, as it was all he could do. It was only a matter of time though for him to hear the chinking of the blimp's anchor ascending. He lifted his head up just enough to see the vehicle depart from the Academy.

"Guess she made up her mind, for now…I give her five minutes before she's distracted again." Alex then smacked his head back down and rolled his eyes. His incessant groaning now at least served as a means for Aku-Aku to find him. The mask floated around for a bit before he registered the noise and immediately flew over to the boy.

Limply moving his eyes down, Alex looked upon the mask for a bit before closing them and groaning. Aku remarked with a brow raised "So this is where you went" and then went down until he was hovering above Alex's gut. The boy creaked his eyelids and asked "Why aren't you with the others?"

"Why aren't you?" He replied pressingly. Alex shrugged and said "What's the point now? You heard the argument we had."

"Yes, yes I did." Aku said with a slight tone of distress.

"Then you KNOW I'm right!" Alex blurted out. Aku shook and closed his eyes "…I do not know enough to decide that. In fact, there's one piece of the puzzle I'm still missing…"

"Oh yeah…?" Alex weakly spat out.

"You weren't concerned when N. Tropy took that artifact piece. I thought that was rather odd, even with your attitude." Alex lifted his head up and scowled "…And what's that supposed to mean?"

"There's something you haven't told us." Aku smiled as Alex gave him a glance of surprise. "You learn to pick up on these things over the years."

Alex, with a hefty grunt, sat upright and limply put his arms on his legs. He then sighed and said "Look, trust me when I say this, but I just…knew we'd be seeing N. Tropy again. Shina has the same information I do, so she should know that!"

"Is that so?" Aku closed his eyes and continued gently "As one who has dealt with time before, may I impart a little advice?"

"Neither of us are going anywhere…" Alex said with yet another roll of the eyes and a slumped frown.

"Nothing is truly predetermined. Some elements can change. Because you crossed N. Tropy's path once already, who's to say you will cross it again?"

"That shouldn't matter Aku. Do you think Shina was thinking any of this when that happened?" Alex swung an arm out with a frustrated look in his eyes, yet Aku floated there with the patience of a saint and told him "It appears as though you are making an assumption."

"An assumption? T-That's silly!" The boy reeled back confused.

"Hrmmm…Alex, I want to ask you one thing. What made YOU decide to go on this journey?" Aku gave a profound glare and pulled back a little.

"Why…I went on this journey?" Alex had a moment of thought and then scoffed, puckering his lower lip and replying "Shina practically begged me to come along. Then there was this note and…"

He paused. Not because something had slipped his mind, far from it in fact. He remembered what he had said at the time and paraphrased it in a whisper "If I don't help you after you've come this far for your family and people, then I deserve to burn…" It was the word 'family' that stuck in his mind the most though. As his own parents flashed in his mind, Alex grit his teeth and a spark of inspiration struck him.

"…What am I doing?" He rubbed the side of his head as his expression drooped. Then with a sigh he looked to Aku and said "Sorry you had to waste your time reminding me of something so SIMPLE."

"I am always here to guide those in need. You need not apologize." Aku smiled and pulled back as Alex stood up, telling him with a slight smirk "I'll never get Shina, but…I get what it means to have a family. I can't give up this quest, even if I have to drag us both through the mud to get to the end."

"Hahahah, never say never, my child. There are always second chances." Aku's smile was one of pride as Alex snappily pointed at him and said "You're pretty good for a piece of wood, Aku."

"Now, what shall we do?" The mask inquired.

"We'll catch up to the others. I don't know what I'll say to Shina, but…There's time to think of that along the way." While he wasn't full of energy, at least Alex had washed away the melancholy around him. He quickly grabbed Aku and stuffed him under his shirt to the mask's confusion.

"It'll be faster this way. Hang on Aku." Kicking off the ground hard enough to blow the leaves off all the trees in the area, Alex takes off away from the academy and goes rocketing towards Cortex's ice lab. Aku was pressed against Alex's body and actually let out a bit of a muffled yell. It took about ten minutes for the boy to make it back to the lab, but when he did he was puzzled by the presence of a rift where the building once was.

"They already went after the Evil Twins." As Alex observed the rift, Aku flew out of his shirt and shook his body.

"We should be able to follow them through the rift." The mask said in a delighted tone. Alex nodded and the two flew towards the rift. However, approaching it caused a barrier to flicker and push them away.

"How peculiar…" Aku commented. Alex scratched the side of his head and sighed.

" _You've got to be kidding me…"_ His other hand wandered towards his right pocket and rests atop the Gaia Temporis. With a perk of inspiration, Alex grit his teeth and nudged his head down towards the stone _"Hey uhhh…any chance you can open this?"_

With a flash of light from the pocket, the barrier disappeared. Alex twitched and grabbed the side of his head, a slight throb beating against his mind. Aku looked at him and inquired "Are you ok?" Alex shook the pain off and murmured "It's fine…it's fine. We can go through now."

Alex advanced towards the rift. He gets sucked right into it like a liquid through a tiny straw, and Aku followed after. Their bodies whirled and whirled through the warped dimensions, taking on many different shapes and sizes at any given time.

"… _Somehow the Stargadd was less enjoyable than this…"_ Alex said as he was turned into a thin tube. This nonsense ended with a snap out of the rift, and Alex slammed against the side of a thick metal wall. Aku whapped into his stomach and fell onto the ground. Alex stood up and rubbed his belly then looked around. He was now on the top level of the lab close to the Psychotron door.

Once Aku was up him and Alex looked at the sky. It was a sunset pink with a few clouds, but nothing about it seemed unnatural. The boy folded his arms and commented "Alright we made it. Now we should probably find-"

"Hey guuuuuuys, I found another stoooooooowaway!" A shrill voice with an occasionally prolonged cry similar to a dolphin's came from the right. With Alex's eardrums scratched he turned and saw a four-foot tall creature with slippery flippered feet, a torn black and white striped shirt that fit his three-fingered flippers, and a dolphin's face complete with tiny blue eyes and a dainty pirate's hat over his blowhole.

Somehow, he held a ruby bladed scimitar in his right flipper and waved it towards his comrades. They were similarly sized dolphins, but they had blue instead of black stripes and smaller scimitars. Aku said "I was not expecting this…" while Alex, restraining his laughter barely, replied "N-Neither was I!"

He moved ahead a little as the lead dolphin stood in front of him with the blade waggling at his chest. With a humored smile Alex stood and watched as the dolphin glared him with one eye wide and a scowl on his snout.

"So you're another laaaaaaaaaaandlubber 'truding on our island home? We'll see wot the caaaaaaaptain has to say about that!" Alex raised a finger to the dull edge of the blade and brushed it aside, saying as the five other dolphins surrounded him in a circular mob "Lemme guess, you captured two girls and a bandicoot?"

The dolphin budged the blade close to Alex's chin and said "Dooooooon't get wise with meeeeeeee you hairy mammal. I'm the one who'll ask the questions arooooooooound here!" One of the other dolphins said in a cheeky accent "Uhhh sir, ain't it the captain who asks the questions?"

"I ain't taking liiiiip from you…! You don't even haaaaaave lips!" The dolphin spoke in an outrage, but then got a little calmer as he tried to turn back at Alex and say "But yes the captain will-"

The boy had already passed the mob with Aku, engaged in a conversation "So Shina and the others are nearby. Shouldn't take long to scour the island." The leader dolphin's eyes widened 'til they were firmly bloodshot, and he turned around to say "Why that scallawagging liiiiiiiittle…"

At the edge of the platform Alex said "Guess we're in a Pirate Dimension of sorts." Aku nodded and went ahead to look over the platform. The island was just as big as Cortex's with the ice replaced with rough sand and grey stone. There were palm trees littered about and a docile volcano to the north of the lab, which had landed smack dab atop a pile of wood floating on shallow water.

Alex clicked his tongue and whistled "Wow, that probably used to be a ship." He then scanned the rest of the island and caught eye of a tower of smoke on the western shore, which lied next to an assembly of cannons and a behemoth of a stone monument that looked like a whale skeleton.

"Want to split up?" He asked. Aku said "I think that'd be wise. Be careful" and was prepared to fly off alongside Alex. However, when the boy tried to leap off the ground he fell right back down. His puzzled blink turns to an annoyed scowl.

" _Oh you've GOT to be kidding me!"_ Aku turned around as the boy swung his arms up and tried to take off repeatedly without success. When the mask approached he only got to say "Is-" before he was suddenly smooched by the suction of a thick plunger. With a tug of the rope he was pulled towards the dolphins. Alex turned around and only caught a glimpse of the dolphins holding little bamboo tubes in their snouts before he was pricked all over the body by tiny needles.

Then he plucked one from his arm, unable to gleam it as his vision started to blur. His knees got weak and he began to collapse forward as the leader dolphin approached him. As his mind started to sleep he thought _"This is…sooooo much worse….than what happened with….the Axeeeeeeeeeemmm…."_ Then with a thud he was out like a light.

An undetermined amount of time later, Alex started to creak his eyelids open slowly but surely as a couple of voices spoke loudly amongst a crowd of dolphin cries.

"I'm telling yaaaaaaa captain, we should be throwing these mammals into the briny deeeeeepths!" A smack was heard as the leader dolphin was sent spinning like a top around the area. Then a deep but blubbery sounding pirate voice yelled out "There shall be no dishonoring of me pirate's law, first-mate Dolphi. N.!"

Alex's vision cleared enough as the ground rumbled, and he looked up to see a truly bizarre and worrying sight. Standing ten feet tall with leathery, black speckled skin was a creature with a similar body shape to the dolphins around him, but with longer and thinner flippers along with a his snout replaced with a mouth filled with bristled teeth. The creature had a two-foot horn sticking up from the forehead and wide yellow eyes. His blow hole was covered by an eye-patch, he wore an open brown-ish long jacket decorated with golden doubloons and grey tassels along with brown clothed boots custom-made to fit his fine flippered feet. His body had many scars, primarily on his face, yet none of them cut deep. The necklace of tiny skulls added to his imposing presence, as did the glare he gave Alex soon after.

"So the barnacle boy has awakened eh? And fancy that…" The creature, which Alex could identify as a narwhal now that his mind was awake, took a pocketwatch tossed from a dolphin and opened it up beside his face "It just struck ye' olde interrogation time! Get this landlubber onto his feet gents!"

A couple dolphins hoist Alex up under his shoulders until his knees are resting on the planked floor. The boy looks the narwhal in the eyes, thinking _"…I'm actually glaring at a narwhal…"_ in a flustered tone.

The narwhal bent down on his wobbly knee and still towered over the boy. His teeth, thick with algae between the gums, cracked a grin as he gave a deep hearty chuckle and asked in a gravely voice, "Now…what gave ye the right to just show up on OUR island, bringing ye mighty hammer down upon my prized vessel?"

Alex glanced to the right and saw the laboratory towering in the center of the island. _"Least I know where I am…"_ He budged his arms but they were too stiff from sleep. With a grit of his teeth he looked at the narwhal and said "Look, I wasn't with the people who broke your ship."

"Hehehe…You take me for a fool? I'm a pirate! I wrote the book on deceit!" The narwhal stood up and proudly put a flipper on his chest. Dolphi. N. held a thick book titled 'The Book on Deceit' between his flippers at Alex and proclaimed matter-of-factly "Yours only for the fine price of foooooooooooorty doubloons!"

The dolphin slipped away as the narwhal turned around and said "Is ye name not Alex Whiter?" When Alex widened his eyes the narwhal got a sly grin and said "Oh ho ho, so ye are. The lassie spilled her guts on that she did…" He gestured to the right and Alex looked to a broken off part of the ship's hull that was hoisted up against the side of the whale skeleton.

Shina was chained to it with handcuffs around her wrists and legs with a few bruises and such on her body, she avoided all eye-contact with Alex and had a tired frown on her face. Nina was kept pinned to the wall by magnets, and Coco had been roped up to the wall in the same stiff position as before. Nearby, Aku and Uka were tied to a palm tree log and spun over a roasting fire, with some dolphins cooking marshmallows over it.

" _Really? How the heck did you get captured?"_ Alex thought while the narwhal stepped in front of him. With a few clicks of his tongue the creature drew a scimitar as long as his horn and spun it around the flipper a few times. The center of the blade was hollowed out, yet it was sharp enough to cut diamond. One slice, and Alex knew his head was would be severed. With confidence bordering on arrogance, the narwhal roared to his comrades "Alright laddy…Do you plan to pay penance for ye crimes against me?"

As the boy met the creature's glare, he felt a surge of blood flowing through his veins. His arms felt right, and with a swift grin Alex said "Yeah about that…" He then flexed his muscles with a firm grunt and punched the dolphins in the gut to send them flying.

" _Good, my basic strength is still with me!"_ Then the boy swung his arm forward to draw his sword at the narwhal. All the other dolphins drew their weapons and the mood in the area grew thick with bloodlust. Alex tensely looked around, finding that the only one with any levity to their name was the narwhal, who let out a jolly guffaw.

"Bwahahaha! This little barnacle has some bite to him! 'Tis be the only quality of worth on you scurvy mammals." He lowered his head to give Alex a more worthwhile acknowledgement. He then brushed his free flipper to the others and they dropped their weapons. Alex looked around and then said in a curious tone "Just who are you anyways?"

"Nyark nyark nyark! Ye haven't heard of me? That's a spit in the face if I ever heard one, but…! I am obliged to strike terror into the hearts of all who trespass my domain of the seven seas." The narwhal raised his scimitar and proclaimed "Men! Exercise ye vocal cords and show him our savage sea shanty!"

With an uneasy sensation curling in the pits of his gut, Alex's pupils shrank to pin-sized dots and he murmured horrifically "Oh…no…" Taking in air, the dolphins raised their snouts up high and began their shrieking song.

" _Far across the seven seas there is no one greater!"_

" _Captain N. Arwhal is the best, he truly has no better!"_

" _He'll pillage your homes and steal your gold"_

" _His heart is greedy, his body old!"_

Alex swung his other hand out trying to send a fireball, but nothing happened. After a few thrusts as the song kept going, he stared blankly towards the sky and let out a slight chuckle "I get it now…This is life's joke and I'm the punch line!"

After the second chorus ended, Alex snapped and exclaimed "Alright! ALRIGHT! I get it!" The dolphins slow down their singing with unenthusiastic mumbles, while N. Arwhal looked to the boy and said with a frown "Well yer a spoil-sport aren't ye?"

"So you're a narwhal named Narwhal?" Alex inquired with little care.

"No, my name is N. Arwhal." The creature said calmly.

"Yeah that's what I said. Narwhal." Alex had a little more irritation in his voice.

"No…N. Arwhal."

"We're not disagreeing here, so why the lip?"

"Oi, you mammals have peanuts for brains…My name is NEFARIOUS! ARWHAL!" The creature rubbed his horn in an annoyed tone.

"Oh so-"

"YOU IDIOT, STOP WASTING EVERYONE'S TIME AND SKIN THIS NARWHAL ALIVE!" Uka-Uka suddenly screamed in pain. Alex quickly firmed his glare at the creature and exclaimed "Yeah yeah…I-I was just thinking of a hundred ways to outsmart this pitiful pirate!"

"Nyark Nyark Nyark! A rich little jest if I ever heard one. I did not conquer the seven seas by having a screw for a brain!" The narwhal waggled his scimitar in front of him and proclaimed confidently "If you want to cross blades with me, then I shant deny your suicidal bravery mammal! EN GARDE!"

N. Arwhal threw his girth forward and tried to slice Alex with a swift swing. The boy countered with a broad swing and as the blades collided Alex was pushed back and his arm was forced above his head.

" _H-He's strong!"_ Alex widened his eyes as the mammal quickly flailed his blade towards the boy's neck. He had to quickly swing the sword down with all his strength just to deflect the scimitar away, but then was forced to hold it there as the narwhal went for two swift thrusts. As Alex kept on the defensive for a little, he observed the creature's movements.

" _His flipper allows great flexibility with his blade, and all the swimming he must do gave him fantastic upper body strength. Even if I had my elements, he'd still be giving me trouble…"_ Alex spun and built momentum for a stronger slash as she grabbed the handle of his blade in both hands. N. Arwhal hopped back and parried the sword while letting out a jolly laugh.

"Yer nuttin' but hot air after all!" The creature's mocking was joined in by Shina suddenly proclaiming "That's what I said!"

"I'M TRYING TO SAVE YOU, IDIOT!" Alex chose the worst time to blurt that out, as during that distraction N. Arwhal thrust his head down and tried to impale Alex with his horn. The boy leaped back with only a slight cut on his shirt and the creature put a gash in the ground, knocking up some splinters.

Ripping himself free like the floor was butter, the narwhal slapped some of the splinters with his other flipper and forced Alex to raise the blunt edge of his blade to block them. Then N. Arwhal lunged forward and tried to swipe the blade at Alex's legs. He counters with a lower swing to block the attack, and yet the narwhal quickly went for his neck.

The boy widened his eyes and time slowed a bit in his mind as he barely dodged the blade by swerving fully to the right. He lost his balance a bit and bent onto a knee. N. Arwhal tapped the dull side of his blade against his head and joined his crew in mocking laughter.

"Nyark Nyark Nyark! As I said ye landlubber…I have NEVER been bested in battles of the blade!" Alex planted his blade for a moment and thought _"You're lucky you aren't food in my belly you blubbery brute. I-I have to think of a plan here…"_

Looking over at his restrained allies, Alex realized that Crash wasn't amongst them. _"Hrrrmmm, I could either try and find him…or I can trick the idiot to let his guard down and free the others."_ Quickly he grit his teeth and pretended his knee was weak.

"D-Darn it…you are really strong!" Alex spoke very dramatically, grabbing N. Arwhal's attention as he clicked his tongue. Alex looked the creature in the eyes and said "H-How did you get this strong?"

"How I became so strong, ye ask? Well you see, it all started when I was a wee narwhal, and I first laid me eyes upon a vessel on the briny blue. It was-" N. Arwhal took great interest in weaving his tale together and looked away from the boy.

" _I can't believe that worked!"_ Alex glared widely at the creature and slowly stabilized himself. Then he looked at the restrained Shina as she again glanced away from him. Letting out a sigh, the boy shook his head and then focused on her upper handcuffs. With little hesitation, he threw the blade straight towards the restraints.

The blade flew fast and true towards it's destination, but with a swift swing out N. Arwhal caught it in the hole on his scimitar and turned to face a bewildered Alex. With a taunting flip of his sword, the creature took hold of Alex's weapon.

"You scurvy dog…You tried to distract me! Perhaps ye would be better as a pirate than a fighter…!" He took little offense and looked rather entertained. Alex blinked a couple times with his arms stiff beside his hips. He glanced to the left and saw some gun powder next to a stack of cannonballs and thought _"Ok…Plan B!"_

Swinging his hand out, Alex warped his sword back into his grasp and threw it at the cannonballs. N. Arwhal widened his eyes as the sharp blade scraped against the metal balls and ignited some sparks onto the gun powder. A huge explosion made of soot goes off and sends some squealing dolphins flying away. Alex closes his eyes and send his sword away.

" _Gotta go fast!"_ The boy held his breath and ran turned away, sprinting away from the scene while pushing aside a couple blinded dolphins. He's able to get out of sight by the time the cloud cleared, leaving the people involved including the prisoners coughing for a good few seconds. N. Arwhal in particular left the cloud with the hugest grin on his face as his first-mate approached him.

"The nerve of that baaaaaaaaarnacle boy! I'll keelhaul him for this muuuuutiny!"

"Nyark Nyark Nyark! I haven't had a thrill this grand in a long time! Spread out and search for! him, he cannot have gone far." N. Arwhal then glanced back at the prisoners and murmured callously "But do not kill him…I want him to share the same fate as his comrades." Shina weakly glanced at the creature as they partook in haughty laughter.

Alex had stopped near one of the "ribs" of the rocky whale skeleton and laid a hand on his chest while catching his breath. There was a little soot on his arms now. Resting against the back of the "rib", he raised his head and felt his heart calm down.

"P-Powerless again…No flight, no elements…Just my sword and my smarts." Alex gasped and hung his head against his chest. With a melancholy look on his face he said "Must be the nature of this dimension." He was then shocked by the squeaks of dolphins running his way and quickly retreated inside the skeletal rock before the mob of dolphins passed by.

Alex looked past the "rib" and once the dolphins were gone he decided to slip deeper into this strange structure. He moved towards the mouth quietly along the sands until a stone wall got in his way.

" _Dead end…? No, wait a second…"_ Alex saw something off with the center of the wall. A segment of it was slightly turned, and upon resting his hand on the wall he was able to slowly turn it and enter a spacious cavern. It was thankfully lit by some torches as the door closed behind him.

"Guess this is better than nothing." He only took one step forward before there was some rustling coming from the sand ahead. Going completely stiff, Alex cautiously drew his sword and watched as a figure emerged from around the corner.

All caution fell to the wayside and was replaced with relief when the person turned out to be Crash. Dropping his sword, Alex cracked a smile and ran forward, bending down and giving the bandicoot a hug.

"I'm glad you're safe Crash. I-I honestly thought something happened to you." The bandicoot stared blankly at him with his tongue stuck out, then patted the boy on the back a couple times. Alex blinked and pulled back, scratching the tip of his nose with a blush on his cheeks.

"I-I don't know what came over me there…" He shook his head and stood back up while asking "Never mind. Crash, how did you get here?" The bandicoot gave a shrug of the shoulders.

"Should've expected that." Alex folded his arms and tapped his elbow until Crash gestured behind him. The boy raised his brows and said "What's up?" Then, the bandicoot turned around and sprinted back from whence he came. Alex followed, the glow from the torches being replaced by a pristine golden light. The cause was a very thick pile of golden treasures. Necklaces, chests flooded over with doubloons and rubies were just some of the treasures to behold.

None of these wonders did anything for Alex, who just stared blankly at them while Crash dove right in. He leaned against a wall and said "That's a nice find Crash, but I have to think of a plan to save the others."

" _I can't take on N. Arwhal alone, and I bet his cronies are guarding the laboratory. It's just me and Crash, but I don't think I can make him go along with a plan."_ Alex thought on his situation and let out a dry chuckle.

"Ha…plan? What plan? The odds are really against me here. Come on Alex, think!" The boy punched his forehead a couple times, but all that did was bring him pain.

"Ghhh…This is ridiculous. I'm running out of time here and-!" Alex turned his head towards the treasure and his choice of words combined with that got him thinking.

" _Tell us where the treasure is, and we'll let you live…"_ N. Tropy's words echoed in his mind as Alex recalled him departing with one of the artifact pieces. Then, Alex rushed back to the entrance of the treasure cove and took note of the fact there is a rotating door. A plan was piecing together slowly but surely as the boy then reached into his pocket and pulled out the Gaia Temporis.

" _I am N. Tropy, master of time and space!"_ The man's bold proclamation then echoed in his mind. He then drew his sword in the other hand and various things flashed through his head. N. Arwhal's arrogant grin, his sharp horn, the shape of the artifact piece, Crash's presence here, and most importantly the slight distress on Shina's face.

Alex gripped his hands tightly and with a confident smile he said "It's like I said….I got my sword, and my smarts." Then, as he stared at the revolving rock he stated firmly "Alright, lets turn the odds back in our favor."

 _Next Time: Alex's All-Out Attack_


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Showdown of Scourge and Scurvy**

A half-hour later, N. Arwhal stood near the hostages tapping his flippers impatiently. He snarled his lips as a dolphin approached him and said "I-I'm sorry caaaaaaaaptain! We've found no hide nor hair of the landlubber!"

"Graaaaaah! That shrimp is slipperier than an eel! There are no boats for him to procure, so scour the island AGAIN!" The narwhal brushed his flipper out forcibly and the dolphin stuttered "Y-y-y-yes sir!" before scurrying off.

N. Arwhal wrenched his scimitar from the ground and turned to his hostages. He walked right in front of Shina and kneeled down, giving her a ferocious grin. "Yer comrade is proving to be a right pain in the portside lassie."

"H-Heh, it's all he's good for."

With a curious look in his eyes the narwhal asked "Ye appear to have a low opinion of yer comrade. So perhaps we can work out a little…bargain." He pinched his flippery fingers together while Shina gleamed him in the eyes and replied weakly "Sorry, I don't even know where he went."

Leaning his head back, the narwhal gave a gargling growl as his skin reddened a little. Yet as he cooled down, he took the dull side of his weapon to Shina's chin in order to perk it up, carefully avoiding a cut. The beast then stared her in the whites of her eyes as she grit her teeth.

"A pity we aren't…compatible my dear. A pearl such as yourself is quite rare these day." Shina's eyes quivered until the blade was pulled away and N. Arwhal stood upright. He sheathed his blade on his belt and exclaimed with authority "Enjoy your last minutes alive! Once I have combed this island down to the last grainy piece of sand, I shall DRAG your comrade back to walk the plank beside you all!"

N. Arwhal walked away, leaving Shina with a look of distress on her face for the few seconds it took to hang her head. She closed her eyes tightly and jerked the cuffs, only for the soreness in her wrists and ankles to stop that. She focused on the aura, but couldn't even muster a spark of it. Strenuous thinking on that part caused her to thrust her head forward and let out a tired pant.

"… _It's no use, there's no way out."_ She looked around, the others unable to do anything either. Hanging her head again, she bit her lower lip and thought _"I-I'm sorry sis…I guess I was in over my head after all."_

Though she wanted to think about her sister in these tiring times, she instead found herself lingering on Alex's presence. _"…Why did that jerk have to come back. Why does he CARE now?"_ She grit her teeth, yet didn't boil into a rage. Instead she felt her heart tense up and murmured "…H-He's my only hope now, isn't he?"

Meekly she lurched her head forward and said "P-Please, just this once, help me Alex!"

Back in the treasure cave, Alex was leaning on the back of a wall with his sword gripped tightly and a sweat trickling lightly down his face. Crash was close by playing with his yo-yo patiently.

"Whew…Haven't put that much effort in for a while." He dispelled the blade and goes to the rotating rock. He flips the Gaia Temporis in his other hand and thought _"Ok, please work with me here. I need you to make a small space-time distortion in the slot I carved for about…ten seconds."_

He held the stone up and it glowed after a few ticks. Alex let out a relieved sigh as a small blue and black distorting sphere appeared in a carved out part of the wall. Then the boy kicked the door to flip it around. Once the stone was secured he walked back to Crash and knelt down as the bandicoot paid attention, albeit with a blank expression.

"Ok Crash, I really, REALLY want you to pay attention. This plan hinges on you finding that narwhal and luring him over here. I cut open a large enough entrance near the treasure, so use that." Crash gave a thumbs-up and turned around, sprinting for the back of the cavern. Alex sighed and beat his chest twice before going over the plan again in his mind.

"Ok, first off…"

Outside the rotating door, a large space-time distortion suddenly opened up as the one Alex created disappeared. Through the large distortion emerged N. Gin, N. Brio, and N. Tropy holding the artifact piece and his repaired tuning fork. N. Gin walked close to one of the "ribs" of the whale statue and looked out at the laboratory.

"Dr. Cortex is here! He must have followed a lead on the treasure, the greedy fool!" N. Gin clenched his fists as the missile on his head fumed. N. Tropy rubbed his chiseled chin and murmured "The doctor's Psychotron must've been the cause of the many distortions I felt…No matter, his folly has led us right to where the treasure is."

As they spoke, the ground rumbled a bit as N. Arwhal started to walk along the path leading towards the mouth of the skeleton. N. Brio mumbled "What a bizarre creature. One of the doctor's new mutations with MY Evolv-o-ray, perhaps?" While N. Gin retreated and said "He scrapped that worthless machine after the trouble that wretched bandicoot caused."

"WORTHLESS? How DARE-" N. Brio shook his fist and was only stopped from slugging N. Gin by N. Tropy lifting him up by the collar with his tuning fork. "I have no time for your shenanigans, 'doctors'. Now be quiet, we do not need to garner unnecessary attention."

N. Arwhal's eyes lit up and he suddenly proclaimed "Why if it isn't the slippery bandicoot! …Don't you wave at me, get back here!" He drew his scimitar and stormed on ahead. When he was far enough away, N. Gin raised his voice "So that bandicoot is here too. We should destroy him, maim him, cruuuush him!" He grinded his fist against an open palm with an all too joyous smile.

"Perhaps we can celebrate with that AFTER we claim the treasure. Speaking of, take a look at this…" N. Tropy looked at the slot in the wall and started to smile.

On the other side of that wall, Alex stood with back facing it and laid a hand over a small square hole. His heart beat slowly as he spent a bit slyly grinning from the bickering going on outside. "Next step's up to you Crash…" He was delighted when a small shadow was cast into this part of the cavern, along with a larger one coming soon after.

"Graaaah! You found me treasure hoard! I will skin your fur for clothes, bandicoot!" Crash ran over to Alex as the boy gave him a nod and raised his other arm to protect him. N. Arwhal stomped his way into the room with weapon drawn and the torches adding to his menace. He raised his eyes and cracked a dirty smirk.

"Hohoho, so this is where you ran off to, landlubber. It was not enough that ye keelhauled me ship…but now you taint me treasure with ye mammal FILTH?" Alex grinned at the creature and said "What can I say. No matter how fat the foe, I know how to get under their skin."

"And what point is there in your little game of runaway, boy? Were you thinking of escaping? Did you think your little mind could come up with some way to defeat me?" He slowly approached the boy and flailed his scimitar a little.

"As a pirate you should know…You can't truly enjoy life without being willing to take risks against impossible odds." Alex stared at him without flinching, earning a grin of respect from the narwhal.

"Nyark nyark nyark…Respectable last words. I'll be sure to carve your name unto this island with your carcass, Alex Whiter!" N. Arwhal charged forward with his horn pointed ahead. Alex, with just a few seconds to spare, felt something pushed into the square hole behind him and with a widening of his eyes he grabbed Crash's furry chest and sped to the left. The narwhal rammed into the wall and not only did his horn get stuck, but the force of the impact made the wall start to rotate.

From the other side, the 'N.' trio were surprised when that giant narwhal from earlier appeared as the door turned. N. Arwhal quickly pulled himself out with a furious, bubbly roar and turned around, his face red in rage. When he laid eyes on the trio before him, he exclaimed "MORE landlubbers?! When did my base become a tourist attraction?!"

With cold carelessness, N. Tropy stared at the narwhal and said "Something's not right…That key should've led to treasure, not deliver us a blubbery blowhard." N. Arwhal swung his scimitar at N. Gin, causing him to leap back in girlish fright.

"Yer just more accomplices of that boy and bandicoot!" N. Tropy's eyes widened at that proclamation, a fury slowly welling up in his mind as he repeated that in slight disbelief "A boy…and a bandicoot…?"

On the other side of the wall, Alex pulled the artifact piece from the slot and cracked a smile as he gave it a gentle toss before clasping it tightly. With a jolly chuckle he turned to Crash and said "Thanks for the help Crash." The bandicoot gave a thumbs-up and smiled. As he smiled, Alex turned and told him "Lets go rescue the others." They then make their way to the self-created exit.

Back with the 'N.' group, N. Tropy scowled and said "RRAAAAH! That accursed boy…! How dare he pull this trick on me!" N. Arwhal pointed his scimitar at the man and exclaimed "I will deal with that treacherous barnacle soon enough! Yer still intruding on me lands!"

Suddenly, a now morphed N. Brio threw a monstrous punch at N. Arwhal. The narwhal rammed his head into the fist and N. Brio was sent flying back, the horn just missing his skin. Then, N. Tropy slammed his tuning fork into the creature's horn and threw another hand out to open a rift.

"Grab your strongest machine, N. Gin! We shall raze this pathetic island to nothingness if that's what it'll take to end those wretched vermin!" N. Arwhal pushed forward and dragged N. Tropy's feet through the sand as he let out a roar and tried to attack him with his scimitar.

The commotion drew the attention of the dolphins on the island, taking all but one of them away from the hostages. This last one was the first-mate Dolphi. N., who drew his sword and remarked "No hostages will escaaaaaape while I'm around!"

And then Crash ran up and gave him a good hard spin, sending him flying far away towards the sea. He let out his dolphin-y cry the whole time. Shina suddenly perked her head up in surprise and let out a "Huh?" before she finds herself dropping to the ground. Looking up distracted her from the shackles being cut from her legs.

As she rubbed her sore wrists Shina heard a nonchalant "Hey, catch" and turned to the left just in time to grab the artifact piece. In shock she fumbled it around until it rested firmly on her palms. She widened her eyes, overcome with a rush of joyous and confused emotions as she slowly looked up and muttered "H-How could this…" until her eyes met Alex's own.

The boy gave her a slight wave and a "Yo", a simple yet fitting gesture. Shina clung the artifact close to her chest and her eyes started to water up a bit. "Alex…I-I don't understand." The boy folded his arms behind his head and replied with a nervous blush "W-Well we're in the same boat there."

As an explosion shook the island behind him, Alex lowered his arms and said hastily "Look, we can talk about this later, we need to get back to the lab pronto!" Shina nodded her head and with a "R-Right!" she turned and saw that Crash was already hauling the stiff Coco over his shoulder. Nina was still stuck on the magnets.

"Bleh, if you're done with your lovey-dovey nonsense, can you get me out of here?" The situation hadn't dulled her bratty tone, but Shina nevertheless addressed her patiently "Nina, you said you can fix the Psychotron, right?"

"Of course I can! This was just a fluke!" Nina blurted out, and with a humored sigh Alex shook his head and said "I guess incompetence is just in the blood. Lets just bring her along, at least she's better than her uncle."

Alex went over and cut the magnets apart with his sword. Nina dropped to the ground and said "An anti-magnetic sword? For once, I'm impressed." The boy dispelled the blade and started to head out while proclaiming "Alright lets move!"

"W-Wait Alex!" Shina got him to look back as she said nervously "I-I can't use my rapier."

Alex said "Oh yeah, that's connected to your aura. Uhhh…" this kink in the plan was quickly dealt with when he looked down and saw Dolphi. N.'s scimitar was left behind. He picked it up by pinching the dull sides and holding it out towards Shina.

"Can you use this?"

"Well…n-no…" Shina was a bit unsure at first but reached for the handle of the weapon and said with some confidence "But I've played the Prince of Persia series, I think I can handle this."

Alex gripped onto the blade tightly even as Shina tugged once, taking a deep breath through his nostrils before begrudgingly stating "Oooooh fine." He let go of it and she swung it a couple times while putting the artifact piece under her other arm. She firmly nodded her head while Alex dryly said "Greaaat, lets go."

The group a mad dash towards the lab after Crash grabbed the pole Aku and Uka were roped to. Meanwhile, their attention was directed towards the whale skeleton, which was being torn apart by a giant black and red bipedal robot and the still transformed N. Brio. Dozens of dolphins were sent flying around the island by explosions and punches as the robot flails around trying to get N. Arwhal off of it's arms.

"Isn't that N. Gin's robot?" Nina inquired with a raise of the brows as they got to the base of the lab. Alex nonchalantly said "I miiiiight have lured N. Tropy's group to this dimension."

"How did you even do that? Actually, how did you follow us?!" Shina blurted out curiously. Alex widened his eyes and stuttered "W-Well you see…Look I said we can talk about this later!" He then pointed at Nina as she turned around.

"Nina, we're here, so can you get us to the top?"

"Uncle Cortex didn't put an elevator into this thing. We're going to have to take the long way up." Nina fired her gauntlet up at the closest ledge and pulled herself to it. She then said "Stay still so I can pull you up." She quickly got to work using her gauntlets to get everyone to the upper levels.

"Nyaaaaaaaah! Don't let them get away!" Some dolphins squealed out after the group finished getting onto the ledge. There were five of them charging their way when Shina held her scimitar like a bat behind her head.

"Don't worry, I got this!" Shina charged forward, with Alex letting out an exasperated sigh until he saw what she was doing. Shina twirled around like a ballerina and held her scimitar out as far as she could. Gracefully moving forward, she smacked each of the dolphins off the side of the ledge and into the water. When she was done, she kicked her legs up while stumbling back trying to keep her balance.

"W-Whoa…That's not as easy without my flight." Shina had a goofy smile on her face, and from Alex's perspective he could some of the hope returned to her eyes. He ran up to her and said "Well we'll have that back once we're out of here. Lets keep moving!"

The group kept ascending the laboratory through stairs or Nina's gauntlets. Dozens of dolphins kept getting knocked off the ledges and falling into the water, something even N. Arwhal could notice as he was engaged in his hectic battle.

"Those accursed scallywags! They shall not leave me island…" Suddenly his body flared up with a purple aura and his eyes glowed bright red as he raised his scimitar to the back of the mech's right fist and exclaimed furiously "ALIVE!" Then with one stab into the machinery he managed to make the fist go haywire. Outside of N. Gin's control, the fist aimed towards the laboratory and fired off from the limb. N. Arwhal held on tight until the fist descended and he then leapt towards the highest part of the lab.

The group had finally gathered at the entrance to the Psychotron as Nina proclaimed "It should just take me a few minutes to fix this, but since we took care of everyone-" The platform rumbled and Alex and Shina turned to find N. Arwhal looming on the edge of it with his scimitar stabbed into the ground. With his dark aura flaring he ripped the blade out and then reached to his belt to pull out a second one.

"Yer cowardly ways are at an end, mammals! I shall skin ye all down to the bone!" He gripped his weapons tightly and started to approach the others. Alex and Shina drew their weapons, but their problems did not end there. A space-time rift suddenly opened in front of Crash, and an absolutely furious N. Tropy walked out of it. He gripped his tuning fork tightly and drew a bead on the bandicoot in particular.

"You have foiled my plans for the last time you wretched bandicoot! I shall send all of you to ROT in the primordial times a thousand eternities over!" N. Tropy slammed his tuning fork down and the lab shook. Crash, with an expression careless as always, threw Coco back for Nina to catch and then waved the stick the masks were bound to at his foe.

"Yuuuuck, I don't want this bandicoot!" Nina complained. Alex exclaimed "Not the time for this Nina. Just keep her safe and get the Psychotron running!" With a few annoyed grumbles Nina ran through the nearby door while N. Arwhal let out a gargling roar and charged at Alex and Shina.

The two raised their blades to block his heavy slashes and are pushed back. As he used his strength to keep them on their defensive, the narwhal thrust his horn towards Alex. He flipped to the left and got out of the way by slipping past the side of the creature's body. N. Arwhal swung at him while he ran as he also tried to stab Shina with his horn. She slid back and swung the scimitar out a couple times at his head, only for him to parry with his horn.

He stood sideways and scowled heavily as the two went for a simultaneous attack. He swung his swords just right to catch their blades in the hole in the center, but they pulled out before he could disarm them with a raise of his flippers. They then try to go for a stab at his hips, but he swings his swords down and hits their blades with enough force to send them both to the ground.

Shina spins to the right as N. Arwhal stabs the ground with his blade. Then she uses her hands to push back so she can get to her feet. The narwhal slices at her with both of his blades and she's forced to attack as fast as she can just to avoid a fatal cut.

Shina then held the dull edge of her blade out to block both scimitars, giving Alex time to strike at the creature's back. He gave the creature a light cut despite attacking with all his might, yet the ensuing growl from them came out quite painfully. N. Arwhal held one scimitar on Shina's blade and turned to flail his sword at Alex.

" _He's too strong…! We can't keep fending him off like this, there has to be another way to defeat him."_ Alex stepped back and with a heavy swing of his sword attacked the center hole of the scimitar with enough force to knock it out of the narwhal's flipper. Without fault, N. Arwhal bent down to pick up his weapon while stabbing his horn at Alex. This time, Alex leaped onto the creature's horn and used it to vault over to Shina's side.

"How're you holding up?" He asked, and she replied "This sword's like a thicker rapier, b-but ya can stop being so concerned about me now."

N. Arwhal turned around and rushed at the two, flailing his scimitars almost sloppily, yet each attack was just as dangerous as the last. As Alex fended off the attacks he said to Shina in a flustered tone "I-I'm not!"

Shina firmly gripped her scimitar and swung at N. Arwhal's chest, narrowly dodging his blade and delivering a good cut to the creature's skin. He stumbled back and swung his head up, letting out a trembling roar as his skin got redder. He now put all his strength and then some into each attack, pushing his foes back every time they tried to parry.

Their fight ends up brings them close to Crash's battle with N. Tropy. The madman held his tuning fork beside his hip and fired black and blue spheres of distorting space at Crash, who leapt or slid under each one. He wildly swung the stick holding the masks at N. Tropy, with the man waving his tuning fork around to block each attack.

"You've been a thorn in my side for long enough bandicoot!" N. Tropy snarled and smashed the stick with a hard enough swing. A shockwave that warped the air burst forth as well. Crash looked at his broken weapon and tossed the halves aside with a shrug while Aku and Uka floated beside him, their freedom regained.

N. Tropy growled and teleported back a few feet before swiping his tuning fork out to send a wave of distorting energy at the bandicoot. Aku and Uka flew in the way and with their mystical powers managed to create a shield that held back the attack. Crash leaped over them and ran at N. Tropy as the man knelt down and panted.

With a scowl he slammed his tuning fork on the ground to summon a barrier of energy that deflected Crash as he tried to spin. "You shall not lay your hands on me, vermin!" He smashed the barrier to throw the bandicoot back as he stood up, the clock on his chest spinning violently.

Shina looked over and said "Awww, why do THEY get to keep their powers?" while putting her all into parrying one of N. Arwhal's swings. From her disappointment came a spark of inspiration from Alex as he swung his head and proclaimed "Aku, Uka, try to catch one of his projectiles and fire it at N. Arwhal!"

"Yer tricks will not save you this time! DIE!" N. Arwhal raised his scimitars above his head and swung them in an 'X' towards Alex, repeating this a couple times as the boy held them off. "What is your blade made of?!" He strained his voice to exclaim. Alex just chuckled.

During that exchange, N. Tropy kept firing shockwaves that Crash avoided with ease, the frustration growing within the man's mind as he exclaimed "You're just a brainless marsupial, HOW CAN YOU EVEN DODGE?!" Crash smiled and seemed to be having fun, while the masks patiently observed.

Uka sighed and said "I can't believe I've been reduced to HELPING someone. Me…the mighty Uka Uka…" Aku looked at him and asked "Do you not feel even the slightest satisfaction in this, brother?"

"No." Was his blunt response, much to Aku's disappointment. N. Tropy started to fire off a multitude of orbs at Crash, and this time the masks intervened by using their powers to trap the largest orb in an energy barrier. Crash managed to dodge the rest just fine and ran over to try and spin and even more tired N. Tropy, only to again be blocked by a barrier.

Aku turned to Alex and didn't even need a signal to say "Aim for the swords" to his brother. Uka snarkily replied "Yeah yeah, I'm not blind" and the two focused at N. Arwhal's scimitars. When they thought they had a clear shot they sent the sphere flying from the barrier.

N. Arwhal leaped back, but Alex and Shina charged and locked their weapons into the holes in his scimitars. With a jerk to the right they managed to disarm him, the blades flying into the sphere of distorted space. In milliseconds the swords are broken down into pixilated shards and then disintegrated down to the smallest atom.

With his mouth agape for just a second, N. Arwhal's eyes went blood red as he turned to his two foes and rapidly tried to stab them with his horn. He is reduced to blubbery grumbles as he tried and failed to hit his foes as they nudged towards the edge.

"Shina, move!" Alex exclaimed and she quickly sprinted to the right. The boy used his speed to get around the massive narwhal and with fist drawn back he punched him hard in the back before they could stand upright. With his weight against him, N. Arwhal widened his eyes and tumbled right off the lab, falling and falling towards the waters below. The aura faded from his body, and his screams died out in a matter of seconds.

Alex frowned and said "Oh, he's going to live" but with a nonchalant shrug he turned to Shina as she tossed the scimitar off the lab. They looked each other in the eyes and then turned with a slight blush on their faces. Only N. Tropy's frustrated growls broke them out of this. They turned and found N. Tropy again trying to put his barrier up, but it quickly fizzled out as the clock on his chest started to go out of control along with the pistons on his back. Crash ran up and gave him a good spin, causing him to be knocked onto his back close to the edge.

"C-Cursed…bandicoot!" N. Tropy tried to pull himself up and aim his tuning fork for one last attack. Shina, however, sprinted over to the man and punted him really hard in the crotch to send him flying off the edge. N. Tropy let out a high-pitched cry of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGGH!" as he plummeted towards the rockier part of the island.

Shina smiled and with a giggle pulled the artifact piece to toss it for a bit. Alex, with a cold sensation through his nerves, slowly moved his hands near his waist and murmured "I-I got off lucky…" Shina turned around and said cheerfully "We should probably get inside before the Psychotron goes off!"

She sprinted for the door while Alex rubbed the back of his head and said to Crash "At least we shouldn't see N. Tropy again." Then he looks at the masks and commented "Thanks a lot for the assistance guys."

Uka grumbled, but Aku said "We are both welcome to have helped. Now, let us deal with the Evil Twins." Then the three went into the Psychotron chamber right as Nina activates the machine. Like before, the laboratory is bathed in a light and warped away from this dimension.

On the ground, N. Arwhal was stuck upside-down by his horn. Near the ocean, his first-mate paddled back in front of his captain and said in a humored tone "So captain, guess you could say 'dis was a…narhwal-ow experience?" N. Arwhal groaned and said "Oh blow it out ye hole…"

 _Next Time: On the Right Path_


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: The Final Dimension Destination**

The process of interdimensional travel was a lot smoother this time around thanks to the thick walls of the lab. Alex appreciated how short the trip was as the light quickly faded into the energies of the Psychotron. There was a pause from everyone for a few seconds as they gathered their bearings. Nina stepped away from the computer and looked around while muttering "No dolphins this time…good."

"Are you SURE we reached our destination this time?" Alex inquired smarmily. Nina lowered her brows into a glare and replied "Look, it was just one fluke. Besides, isn't it YOUR fault Uncle Cortex wasn't here to operate this?"

"…Shut up." Alex turned for the door and started to go outside "Just give me a second to check. In the meantime, maybe you should fix Coco, Nina."

After he left the niece commented with hands laid together before her chest "Yeah right, like I'd bother rescuing a bandicoot." Shina looked at her with a smile and pointed out "Ya helped Crash escape the last dimension."

"Well duh, not like YOU were going to let me leave him behind." Nina brushed some fingers out without looking towards Shina.

"Or maybe you have a soft side?" Shina gave a humored chuckle while placing some fingers on her lips. Nina rolled her eyes and replied "Nope, left all that far behind."

After a few seconds of tapping her foot Nina grumbled "…But I guess I could use another lackey. You're kind of boring me." That was the best way for her to express kindness, and she walked over to the unconscious bandicoot. Giving her a knuckled tap on the forehead, she muttered "She got hit with the Psychotron's energy. I should be able to fix her with another blast."

When Nina stood up, she looked over at Shina's bright smile and said snidely "Your boyfriend's taking a while. Can you check on him?" Shina folded her arms under her chest and said calmly "Don't know why you guys keep saying that. We're uhhh…barely even friends."

As Shina went for the door she looked at a yo-yo playing Crash and leaned at him to whisper "Keep an eye on her please." He quickly put his toy away and gave a thumbs up before giving Nina a nice blank stare. Shina went out the door and was greeted by an abnormal violet sky.

The wind howled with a gruesome whisper at this high altitude, carrying warmth from the murky, blackened seas below. With Alex nowhere to be found at first glance, Shina moved around the edge of the platform and caught a glimpse of a towering volcano with neon purple lava flowing down it. Looking towards the volcano was Alex, who was in the middle of wiggling his arms around.

Shina approached slowly, watching as the boy swung his arms out and caused some harmless bolts to fly out of the side of the lab and curve around back to him. He catches them and let out a relieved sigh along with a gentle chuckle. With a raise of the hand Shina concentrated and made a hand of aura to poke Alex on the shoulder. The boy flinched and turned around "Hu-what?!"

"So our powers are back to normal, yah?" She inquired as the boy punched his chest twice and caught his breath.

"Y-You could've approached me differently…" He muttered before addressing the subject with arms folded "Yeah. I don't get how that works, but at least I don't have to use my brain like that again."

"An untrained brain makes life a pain." Shina said with a finger raised and the posture of a teacher.

"I meant under such a stressful situation, Shina." Alex responded with a firm glare her way. She grinned and then pulled out the artifact piece, holding it out and saying in a humored tone "Well at least I can say I like your brain, Alex."

"J-Just that?" He looked away with cheeks puffed and a blush on his cheeks. Shina giggled and trotted in front of him to give him a bop on the nose, telling him as she put her arms behind "I do appreciate you getting this back though, Alex. M-Maybe you aren't one-hundred percent a jerk?"

"…If you don't mind me asking, what percentage am I now?"

"Ooooooh, about seventy-five percent." Shina playfully responded, causing Alex to blink in surprise. She then glanced at him over her shoulder and said "I can't put my finger on it, but something about you feels different."

"Heh, well I don't see it. You're probably just high off hope right now." Alex raised a brow and gave her a smirk. She shook her head a bit and said "Well I aaaaaaam in a pretty good mood now…Say, Alex?" Her tone got a bit more subdued.

"What's up?"

"D-Do you…want to try-" Shina's blush was broken when Nina suddenly exclaimed "Hey, lovebirds, I fixed your bandicoot!" The two looked at the niece as she rolled her eyes and went back to the Psychotron.

Alex quickly stuttered "W-We'll continue this later" "Uh, yeah!" Shina's words mixed in with a good amount of perkiness before she immediately broke into a sprint towards the Psychotron. Alex muttered "…What an oddball" yet had a slight grin as he followed.

Inside the room, they found Coco in the middle of a big, dopey hug with her brother Crash. Nina groaned and her cheeks puffed in revulsion "Alright you two, break it up…You're giving me a headache." As she swayed a hand out Coco turned around and asked with a peeved glare "And just who are you?"

Shina immediately cut in front of Coco and shook her hand merrily, saying with her usual energy as the bandicoot looked at her confusedly "Hi there, I'm Shina Aurora! That grumpy gus behind me is Alex, the goth girl is Nina Cortex, you already know the two masks and your brother, so how're you doing Coco?!"

"I-I…what?!" Coco blurted out as her head briefly strained itself to comprehend this situation. Alex gleamed at Shina and said "You might want to bring her up to date."

With a firm nod Shina turned to Coco and hastily explained "So after Cortex knocked you out he tricked Crash into a death trap, but Crash defeated him and they got into an underground brawl. There were some ant aliens and more traps but the two got out, then a couple of birds with a grudge against Cortex showed up claiming vengeance. They turned me into a chicken, shrunk me, made a man outta me, and turned me into a big stinky jerk. Cortex teamed up with Crash, who then teamed up with Uka-Uka, then we went on some wacky adventures to collect crystals. Then Cortex was kidnapped, I picked up his niece Nina, we got tied up by dolphins in another dimension, and now we're at the Evil Twins' home dimension!"

Coco's mouth went agape and her eyes twitched around with her letting out a garbled mess of words. Alex said "Ah great, you broke her again." Quickly, Crash grabbed the sides of Coco's head to stabilize her, which seemed to work as she calmed down a bit and said "O-Ok, I think I got all that."

After Crash let go, Coco looked at Shina and Alex and asked "But why are YOU two here?" As Shina gasped to speak Alex quickly said "W-We just happened to be passing by looking for a rock. The Evil Twins have it."

Coco nodded and smiled "Well, thanks for keeping my brother out of trouble. I wish I could help you fight, but I still feel pretty stiff…"

"That's ok, we were hoping you'd just guard the lab until we get back." Shina said. Nina commented "We were?" with a blank glare. She shrugged and continued "Whatever, just don't go touching anything."

Nina started to head for the door while saying in a demanding tone "Come on lackeys, lets go cage some birds!" Coco said sarcastically "She's a real ray of sunshine isn't she?"

Shina nodded her head but quickly bent down beside Coco and whispered for a bit into her ear. Alex raised his brows while Crash leaned in with interest. When they were done, Coco nodded her head a couple times and said "Alright, I'll try" with confidence.

Shina and Crash joined up with Alex as he asked "And just what are you planning?" With a finger to her lips she replied "Something for later. Youuuuu'll see."

"Well, alright." Alex left it at that and three, along with Aku and Uka, headed outside the lab. Nina waited for them at the edge of the platform looking towards the volcano and commented "What a weird dimension. Fits those stupid birds, I suppose…"

Nina turned and asked "Alright, so where're we going to start, lackeys?" Alex sighed and with a gesture of his hand said "I got my powers back, so I can carry us to the other side of the volcano. Just get on that platform."

"Other side? Whatever, this whole place looks more barren than the bandicoot's head, so I guess anywhere's a good start." Nina got onto the platform before the others, and as Alex concentrated deeply on it he was able to swiftly send it flying through the air. He went around the volcano, safely avoiding the heat as they got to the other side of the island. There were no signs of life, not even a bird in the sky.

Yet, despite that, there was a lone house in the area. That could've easily been avoided had Nina not said "Hey wait…Isn't that Uncle Cortex down there?" Alex kicked up the speed of the platform instantly until Shina said his name in a drawn out manner.

"Oh fiiiine…" Alex rolled his eyes and with a U-Turn descended towards the lone house. Sure enough, Cortex was laid out in front of it bound by some steel wires and a purple apple strapped into his mouth. Aku turned to the house and let out a brief gasp.

"No…it cannot be!" His surprise was understandable, considering that what he saw was his home. Rather, it was the home he shared with Crash and Coco, but it was horribly disfigured by broken windows and holes in the roof. It looked like it was tainted by age, but considering the location that could not have been true.

Uka looked at it and murmured "Wow, what an improvement" earning a glare from his brother. Alex stepped forward and 'accidentally' kicked Cortex in the gut as he commented "This must be the evil dimension."

"Well considering the EVIL Twins…" Shina said quietly. Alex just shrugged and didn't care as Nina pushed him aside and quickly pulled the wires from Cortex's body. Then she propped him up and crushed the apple to a juicy paste so he could breathe. The juice got into his throat and caused him to cough heavily as he laid a hand on his chest and put another one up.

"You really got yourself in a pickle, huh uncle?" Nina said with as much kindness as her cold heart could muster. When he was done sounding like dying he opened his eyes and said in a rather surprised tone "N-Nina? Is that you?"

"No, it's a mirage." Nina lightly punched Cortex in the chest and caused him to lurch in shock. His surprise lasted a second as he grinned and said "I'd know that snappy tongue anywhere. My goodness you have grown in the last few years."

With honest sentiment, Cortex smiled and said "Why…I remember when you were just a wee lass asking for my test tubes to experiment on your pet snakes…" Nina pinched his lips shut and said "Now's not the time uncle."

After she let go he said with a sigh of relief "You're right, there are more important things to deal with…" His face contorted into a furious scowl as he gripped his fists tightly and exclaimed "LIKE VENGEANCE AGAINST THOSE WORTHLESS BIRDS!"

Then his glare went towards Alex with his expression remaining the same as he said "Speaking of VENGEANCE!" Alex hastily and cockily replied "Oh yes, I did hand you off to the Evil Twins, didn't I? Uhhh…It was all part of a diversion to-"

"Oh don't give me that nonsense." Cortex waved a hand out and swung his head back, breaking into a pained monologue "You can't even FATHOM the pain I had to endure! Those birds tortured me with their machines and experiments for what felt like days! And it didn't stop there. Oh noooooo, they dropped me off at this pigsty of a home, where I was tied up and licked by this horrible monstrosity! And it's all. Your. FAULT."

Cortex brandished his finger at Alex, who folded his arms and said "Maybe I shouldn't have acted so rashly, but you ARE still a villain Cortex. Frankly, you deserved it." The man stamped his foot down and exclaimed "How DARE you."

"Look, you're not even dead. Why are you complaining?" Alex said with a callous gesture, and Shina turned and rubbed her forehead while murmuring "Aaaaaalex…"

Before Cortex could reply Aku got in front of him and asked "This is true…How have those Evil Twins not killed you yet?" Cortex exclaimed "Will you stop wishing me dead?! I'm the cornerstone of this franchise for crying out loud!"

"Answer the question you WORTHLESS LITTLE MAN!" Uka exclaimed with great fury. Cortex rolled his eyes and replied "Oh like you're anyone to fear now. Whatever…I don't know why those stupid birds didn't try to kill me. I'd imagine they wanted that freak to eat me alive."

"They could've done it themselves. Unleeeeeeess…" Shina smiled and with inspiration said "Oh! Maybe they aren't as strong in this dimension!"

Then she folded her arms and elaborated to her gazing company "I mean…Why else would they use machines instead of their powers?" Cortex wiggled his fingers beside his face and said amidst a moment of inspiration "Ahhh, of course! If they got their powers from exposure to this dimension, then it only makes sense for them to be more powerful to the people of OTHER dimensions."

"So they're weaker here. Good, that'll make it easier to destroy them!" Nina slammed her fists together and broke into a brief giggle fit. Cortex said "That's my gi-errr, niece!"

Then, with energy Cortex exclaimed "Alright! Now we can infiltrate the Evil Twins' base! Follow me, it's th-" The ground suddenly shook as a creature landed behind Cortex. Slowly turned around as the guttural rumbling of their belly got his attention, Cortex was face-to-face with something that resembled Crash, only bigger with darker fur and prehistoric features such as fangs sticking out and bloodthirsty eyes.

This Crash grabbed Cortex AND Nina, hauling them over his shoulders and making a sprint away from the house while Cortex deafly screamed. Aku proclaimed "We have to rescue th-!" but Alex flicked his right hand up and caused the Evil Crash to slam into a rock wall. He fell onto his back unconscious and dropped the Cortexes.

"We're NOT wasting time on a chase sequence." Alex bluntly said as he walked up the vile bandicoot and with a swift kick from the side of his foot he sent him flying into the house. Then he helped the Cortexes up and said nonchalantly "So about the Evil Twins' lair…"

"Ughhh…you're a real monster, you know that right?" Cortex said before shaking his head and pointing northbound. "It's past that sea, at the foot of the volcano. Honestly, with your powers, those birds don't stand a chance, so perhaps I'll just stay behind and-"

Cortex started to turn around only for Crash to grab him by the arm and drag him back to the platform kicking and screaming. Nina sighed and said "And to think I once looked up to you…" before grumbling her way onto the platform. Once everyone was back on it, Alex said "One-way trip to the Evil Twins' lair, coming right up. Anyone got anything to say?"

When Cortex broke free from Crash they engaged in a sissy slapping fight until he remembered "That's right! They have a treasure I can take!" Alex looked at everyone else and said quickly "Nothing important? Good, then lets put an end to this."

He guided the platform straight to the point Cortex mentioned, finding a large metallic tunnel buried deep within the side of the volcano. Throwing the platform to the ocean once they were off it, Alex turned to Shina and said to her once the others were far enough away "Odd time to bring this up, but should we have brought everyone with us?"

"Well this fight is important for them…in their own odd ways, I guess." Shina replied with a nod. Alex leaned closer and whispered while glancing back "Yeah, but you remember what happened the last time with the artifact piece. We're LUCKY that Spyro didn't die to the Sorceress and honestly, the Evil Twins are worse than she is."

"You know what they say about strength in numbers. Besides, it wouldn't feel right taking this final battle away from Crash and the others like we did with Spyro."

"THAT'S what's bugging you?" Alex said as he reeled back in mild annoyance. Shina grinned and pointed out "Duh, cause that's the only thing we should have to worry about."

"Well…I suppose I won't argue that now, but don't make it sound like you're not taking this seriously…It's what got us to-" Alex stopped himself with a shake of the head and a swift turn around. Shina tilted her head as he murmured "Forget about it, that's in the past…"

They caught up to the group as they were on the lip of the tunnel. Cortex proclaimed "Alright, I think I remember how to get through this. Crash, your platforming skills better not have rusted!" The bandicoot gave a thumbs up. And then, through rigorous jumping, running and spinning, the group made their way through the very technologically advanced base…What, were you expecting me to describe all that? This isn't Part 1.

Regardless, this all culminates in the group strolling down a long hallway. Cortex said "Well, that was a little tougher than I expected…" nonchalantly and Nina told him "You should've handled those balls differently uncle."

"Well in my defense-" Cortex lost all train of thought though as they entered a room filled with shimmering riches. Gold and jewels littered the walls and floor in mounds upon mounds, filling almost every square inch of this compact space. Cortex took a whiff of the treasure and said with a gasp "Aaaah…now THIS makes everything worth it."

"Ah, doctor, how kind of you to join us…" A familiar, cockney voice calls out to the group. With a turn of their heads, they are surprised by the presence of N. Tropy, N. Gin and N. Brio. They were all battered beyond belief, with N. Brio walking with crutches and shrapnel stuck in N. Gin's missile. N. Tropy could barely hold his tuning fork at the others as he scowled and looked absolutely LIVID.

"Now you can PERISH with the rest of your foolish flock!"

Shina folded her arms and asked calmly "Wait, how did you get here before us?" with N. Tropy charging energy in his weapon and exclaiming "Enough of your insolence! This treasure belongs to us alone!"

Cortex calmly glanced to the left and with a mischievous chuckle he looked at the 'N.' Trio and said "This treasure is stolen property." N. Tropy widened his eyes and exclaimed "A little late to grow a conscience, DOCTOR!"

"Personally, I don't care…But I think **HE** …" Cortex gestured out where he was looking. Standing in the room with a firm glare towards the 'N.' Trio was the purple dragon, Spyro. Cortex finished "Well…I think he might want his gems back."

Without a word, Spyro opened his mouth and released a large breath of fire on the shocked N. Trio. All of them were roasted black in a matter of seconds, and after they let out a cough of soot they dropped to the ground unconscious.

Then, the group started to head for the other side of the room while Shina waved at Spyro and said "Thanks for the help!" Alex blankly glared at the purple dragon as he only gave a smile. Alex's expression stay blank as no one said anything during their stroll down the last hallway in the base. Only after a few seconds of his eye twitching did Alex exclaiming "What the F-"

 _Next Time: Trapped in their Cage_


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16: Twin Trouble I: Birds in their Cage**

"Alex, watch your language." Shina said as they continued down the hallway, a nonchalant air around her. Alex, with eyes widened, replied bluntly "Oh don't give me that! How do you explain what we just saw?!"

"Saw what? You defeating the 'N.' Trio in one fire attack?" Shina turned her head back with an innocent smile and a wink. Cortex told Alex as well "Don't know why you're freaking out so much. Nothing warranted such crude language."

The audacity of that vile man telling him off left Alex's mouth agape, and he grumbled "I want off this crazy world" as the end of the hallway came. The final room in this colossal base was a vast citadel whose walls were cracked and filled with lava, kept stable by glowing neon blue supports. The ceiling was filled with a swirling pink and purple energy similar to a vortex. At the other end of the room was a small staircase leading to a pair of tiny thrones, and basking in the glow reflected off the cold steel behind them were Victor and Maurice.

Slowly crossing the platform in the center of the room, Cortex glared at the two birds with a fury that could melt even the thickest steel. When the birds saw the presence of the doctor, Victor laid his wings together and said "Well well, look who managed to avoid being eaten."

"What can I say? You're just not very good at being evil." Cortex shrugged off their comments as he stood at the edge closest to the throne. Victor had a hearty chuckle and told him "Well, I guess I just learned from the worst."

Nina glanced at her uncle and inquired "What are these idiots talking about?" Cortex smiled and pointed up at the birds, telling them "You wanted me to remember? Well I have! …Isn't that right, Victor, Maurice?"

Alex snarked quietly "Wow, he FINALLY figured this out." Victor got off his throne and smirked at the doctor before telling him in a subdued manner "Yeah, that's right. It's us, your former best friends, Victor and Maurice."

Uka immediately exclaimed "What?! So you DID know these ingrates, Cortex?!" Cortex shook his head a little and said with a callous brush of the hand over his shoulder "It was a long time ago, I assure you."

"Pah, of course that'd be your reaction." Victor flew halfway down the stairs while telling the doctor with an increasing bluntness "A young, wicked boy in the making experiments to create the ultimate device…A machine that unlock the true potential of a species through evolution. His first test subjects? His lovely pair of pet parrots."

Surprisingly, Maurice flew down and joined in with a little chipperness to his voice "Being so young, you had no idea how badly things would go. We were zappity zapped by the Evolv-o-Ray's lightning, but instead of evolving…Your ray sent us straight to the Tenth Dimension!"

Then Victor continued "The radioactive quantities of this dimension WARPED our fragile eggshell minds and sharpened our intellectual capacities." Maurice finished this off with a shrug and said "Anything after that well…we took some notes straight from your evil genius book, doc!"

"Probably not the best influence all things considered, but it doesn't matter now does it? You've once again CHOSEN to throw yourselves at our mercy!" Victor tauntingly pointed his finger at the doctor, who rolled his eyes and said "Oh, is that really what you believe? That I am at YOUR mercy?"

"Of course you are. That's what you've always been doctor…Always at the mercy of some other force. Whether it be a piece of wood, a ridiculously STUPID bandicoot…or that egotistical, stubborn boy…" Alex slanted his brows in a glare as the bird continued with an aloof gesture "Face it doctor…You're selfish AND pathetic. I bet you didn't even care that we were gone!"

"Now wait just a second! I mourned your loss for weeks! I had no idea that you were simply warped to another dimension! I was six years old, how could I have predicted that?!" Cortex, to the surprise of everyone around him, sounded genuine.

Victor however just flew himself inches away from Cortex's face and exclaimed "Do you expect us to believe that bundle of lies?! And even if we did, what difference does it make? Your attempt to play GOD with your pets' lives made us the way we are today!"

Alex suddenly stepped up behind Cortex and grabbed Victor's attention with his stern glare. Briefly casting forth a sigh, the boy murmured "I can't believe I'm defending Cortex, but…" before continuing firmly "No, he's not responsible for your behavior."

"No one is born evil. Cortex made the decision to be the way he is. So did Nina and Uka-Uka. Most importantly, so did YOU two. Sure, Cortex screwed up and sent you to the Tenth Dimension, but it's not like he wanted to. You felt betrayed, and that's fine, but that gave you no excuse to do the things you've done."

Victor swung his wing out to the doctor and exclaimed "You would defend this man after everything he's done?! Quite the change of heart after you threw him to the dogs!" Alex closed his eyes and said "You're right, but here's the thing…Cortex just wants to conquer the world, YOU want to destroy it. Doesn't mean I like working with him, but you two need to be stopped. That's a fact."

The bird floated up to Alex's face and grimly whispered to him "Like I'm going to listen to a lecture on morality from you, Phoenix of Destruction." The boy widened his eyes and his heart thumped heavily against his chest while his face was flushed with color. Victor chuckled and pulled back, saying with a wing pointed at the group "What does it matter anyways? You're all going to perish right here and now!"

Cortex rolled his eyes and with a serious expression he threw a pointer finger to the right and exclaimed "That's it! VICTOR! MAURICE! Get back in your cage right now!" Somehow, a golden bird cage had gone unnoticed on the platform. The Evil Twins widened their eyes in surprise and flew for the cage, leaving Uka-Uka and Aku-Aku flabbergasted as the birds even shut the door behind them.

There was silence for a few seconds until Victor widened his eyes and punched the sides of his helmet "What am I doing?! Curse my regimented upbringing!" Then, the bird reached into an expanding pocket on his space suit and pulled out the artifact piece. Shina immediately swung her right hand out to draw her rapier and exclaimed "Hey, we need that!"

"Too bad!" As Victor yelled that out him, Maurice, and the cage he was trapped in all burned with a pitch black aura. The Evil Twins' eyes turned bright yellow, and Victor's voice became distorted and more wicked "If you want to make up for lost time with your pets Cortex…THEN SO BE IT!"

The cage suddenly flies to the center of the room and a metal piece shaped like half a sphere appeared under the cage. Then, four legs grew out from it with thick ninety degree joints and four toes each. A metal shell surrounds the cage with a few extra layers of on the back and a face on the front that looked like a mix of an owl and a parrot with peering, slit yellow eyes. Ripping out form the sides of the machine were four arms, each of them having a thick pair of bladed pincers. The thick silver metal slowly was corrupted over by an onyx sheen until it looked absolutely wicked in design.

"PERISH!" The Evil Twins exclaimed as they swung their right pincers at Cortex. The scientist, nearly wetting himself as his legs quivered, had to be dragged away by Crash before his head was sliced right off by the clamping pincers.

Alex shook his head, forgetting what Victor had said as he drew his sword and immediately swung at the titanic machine to release a wave of intense lightning that shook the room as it traveled. The machine dragged all of it's pincers forth and clamped down on the lightning, shattering it into wilting sparks, all the while the Evil Twins exclaimed "You'll have to do better than that!"

As they spoke, six pillars filled with plasma energy emerged around the edge of the arena. Nina immediately took note of them and ran towards the closest one on the right while exclaiming "Keep these morons distracted, I'll take care of these!" Cortex pulled himself away from Crash and through his fear yelled out "Don't be crazy Nina! We're not going to make it through this alive now! We have to run!"

The Evil Twin's turned their head towards Cortex and with a gleam in their eyes opened a pair of cannons on their back and fired off some of their ant soldiers at Cortex. Each of them were three times bigger than the soldiers from the caverns a while back, but they still carried energy swords that fit their size.

These ants surrounded Crash and Cortex, who screamed like a little girl until Aku and Uka suddenly got between the two forces and combined their magic to create a tornado, sweeping up the soldiers and sending them flying towards the magma off the side of the arena. Uka exclaimed "Idiot! If we run now I'll never be able to conquer the world!"

Cortex looked out and saw Alex rushing at the machine and trying to cut down one of it's legs with a large slash of fire, only for him to just barely breech the metal plating. Then he's blasted away by a pair of missiles from the beak of the machine. Simultaneously, the Evil Twins swing their left pincers towards one of the pillars Nina was grappling up to. It was only through Shina's swift protective aura that Nina wasn't sliced in two.

Shina grunted as the machine grinded against the aura hard enough to release sparks. "K-Keep climbing Nina!" She exclaimed as she waved her hand out to push the aura forth and offer more of a gap to Nina. She quickly grappled to the top of the pillar and got in front of a crystal holding some energy within it. With one punch it shattered, and the machine turned it's head and launched a macros of missiles at the girl in response.

Nina turned around and fired her fist off at a hook near the other pillar and swung over before the missiles exploded upon the pillar. With a roll as he landed, Nina smashed the other crystals and the two pillars started to retract into the ground. The Evil Twins' machine shook a bit but they then fired some more ant soldiers out close to Nina.

She punched one away but the others closed in with swords raised. Shina rushed off and with a thrust of her rapier she created a sparkling blade of light that blew an ant away, followed by her spinning around and summoning wisps of aura that were just strong enough to block the blades. A spectacle to behold, Nina paused for a moment before nodding at the girl and then relishing in throwing her fists at the stunning soldiers.

They would be distracted for a while as the machine aimed it's beak at the two and then fired down a flamethrower. Alex helped out by swinging his hand out to divert the flames, but the soldiers kept coming at them in droves. Turning his attention towards the machine, Alex dispelled his sword and thrust his hands out at the machine, focusing on it's structure with all his might. The Evil Twins' swerved their head and their laughter could be heard echoing from within.

"This metal isn't anything you've dealt with boy, so don't bother trying!" Victor's mockery dragged some irritation out of Alex's mind, but he just responded by drawing his sword again and leaping towards the cannons. Their pincers lifted up to clamp him, but as he pulled his sword back Alex drew in the magma's heat for a barrier of fire that melted the pincers and forced them back. He then threw out a slice of air so concentrated that it cleanly sliced the cannons in half.

As electricity sparked from the roof of their machine, Maurice exclaimed "Ah no, now what we gonna do Victor?!" Victory exclaimed "Don't be stupid, we got plenty of our arsenal left to use! Liiiiike THIS!"

Then, a pair of spiked iron knuckles squeezed out from the cannons and rapidly pounded Alex with punches. He was suspended in mid-air and his body jerked around for bit until he brought the blunt side of his sword forth to get pushed back. The knuckles retracted as Alex took a moment to rub a sore spot on his gut.

He then glanced around to see that Shina and Nina had dealt with the remaining ants and were moving towards the northern pillars. Cortex was still being worthless, but Crash was pretty close to the left pillars. With a grin, Alex flew towards those pillars and drew the Evil Twins' attention at him. They fired some missiles from their beak and Alex swung an arm up to pull up a wall of metal to stop the missiles.

The machine was forced to swing it's pincers around the wall to reach Alex. He pulls back and with his sword burning bright he pulled the wall in closer and projected heat onto the melted tips of the pincers to meld them to the wall. He then turned around and threw some seeds out onto the sides of the pillars, sprouting them into stable vines weaved between them while proclaiming "Go Crash, take care of those crystals!"

The bandicoot gave a thumbs-up and ran to the pillars, leaping and climbing onto one of the vines, using them to spring higher and higher until he could trapeze over to the left crystal and destroy it with a spin.

"CUT IT OUT!" The Evil Twins' exclaimed as they ripped Alex's wall from the ground and tugged it hard enough to split it in two. Sacrificing their sharpness for blunt force, they took their new hammers and tried to pound on Crash as he was crossing to the other crystal. Aku and Uka flew to his rescue by pooling their magic into creating a multicolored barrier. The hammers paused but then pounded at the barrier in a fierce rhythm, shaking the room enough to make magma lunge up around the arena.

"You useless masks! Get out of our way!" They kept up their assault and the masks grimaced, with Aku glancing back and exclaiming "Keep going, we're almost there!" Crash, struck with awe, did make a brave leap over to the other crystal and spun to destroy it. At the same time the hammers smashed the magic barrier and sent the masks hurtling towards the magma, with Alex having to go as fast as he could to grab them in his arms.

"You do realize we can fly, right?" Uka said with unthankful sarcasm. Alex turned and just let go of them with a roll of the eyes, then drew his sword and charged at the machine. With blade burning bright, he slipped past the swing of their hammers and attack directly at the joints, slicing through the first arm and then dispelling his sword to grab onto it. He then held on tight to it as he swung and smashed the side of the machine with the hammer, putting a nice dent into it and dislodging the other arm.

He threw that arm into the magma and then flew down to quickly punt the other one in too. Even without arms, the Evil Twins propped their machine upright, glancing back to find that Shina and Nina have now broken the other two crystals. The pillars fall down and the machine trembles a little more.

"Alright, enough close range combat!" From the sides of the machine emerged four more arms with massive guns on them. Two semi-auto rifles and two laser turrets composed their arsenal. Needless to say, again Cortex screamed like a little girl as one of those semi-autos locked onto him and started firing a spray of bullets. Alex bit his lower lip and swung his hand out to protect Cortex with another metallic wall. He then exclaimed "DO SOMETHING YOU IDIOT!" before finding himself pushed back by a thick green plasma bolt.

"W-What are you expecting me to do? T-This is madness!" Cortex exclaimed as his body was drenched in a thick sweat. Another plasma bolt struck the wall and after a few seconds of it glowing green as it cracked, the wall burst and Cortex was thrown onto his back. The Evil Twins then aimed a semi-auto at him while Victory bragged "Hahahah! Any last words Cortex?!"

Cortex, teeth clattering enough to shake his gums, looked to the left and saw Shina barely protecting Nina from a spray of bullets from the other semi-auto. Nina couldn't move past the barrier and from Cortex's perspective she looked a little frightened. "N-Nina…" He muttered. He slowly turned to the machine and from his pants drew his laser gun, which was dwarfed even by the barrel of the semi-auto.

"You got to be joking! Hold on Maurice, I'm dying of laughter here!" Victor's chuckles echoed for a bit, but with a firm grip on the trigger of his gun Cortex grit his teeth. His glare fierce, his voice slowly raised into a furious exclamation "N-No…You're going to be dying by my hand you ungrateful feather brains!"

He fired from his gun a plasma bolt comparable to that of the machine's own. With a blurt of surprise "What?!" the Evil Twins watched as the attack obliterated the semi-auto in one strike. The detached arm flew back into the magma while the eyes of the machine widened in shock. Then with a glare at Cortex as he stood up and started firing smaller shots at the other weapons, Victor exclaimed "How dare you Cortex!"

They then aimed both their plasma blasters at the man, firing one shot after the other. Crash leaped forth and with a spun deflected one back to blow up one of the weapons, while Alex got in the path of the other and sent it back with his sword to destroy the other one. Alex commented in a smart-aleck tone "Way to stand up for yourself Cortex."

"I-I don't need your compliments boy! Just wreck that machine already!" Cortex grit his teeth and kept firing at the machine while running for Nina. The Evil Twins endured the bombardment by blocking it with their remaining weapon, all while energy charged in their beak. "We're not through yet! TAKE THIS!" In response, Alex dispelled his sword and with a grin charged flames in his outstretched palms.

"Haven't had to use this in a while…" He had a bit of child-like giddiness in his following chuckle as he flung both hands together and made a compressed sphere of flames that shrunk down to a speck. He fired off a massive beam of flames towards the blue laser from the machine's beak while exclaiming "FLAME CANNON!"

The machine didn't stand a chance against the overwhelming flames and was roasted within seconds, the Evil Twins yelling "HOT HOT HOT!" for quite a bit after. Even observant in awe, Shina thought _"I-Isn't that just a Kamehameha, Alex?"_

When Alex was done he brushed his hands off and said "Told you guys this would happen." The machine was tilting to the left with most of the metal burned right off. The eyes flickered and the aura surrounding it had faded a little. The last gun had been completely fried, living just a few vulnerable wires.

"Alright, time to wrap this up." Alex swung his left hand back and charged it with electricity, focusing on those wires. The machine suddenly whirred a little as the eyes turned back on and the black aura surged to life almost stronger than before.

"You think…you can topple us so EASILY?!" The Evil Twins' screams were distorted and pained, like they were barely even alive. Shina's eyes widened and she exclaimed with some fright towards Alex "Take care of them, hurry!"

Alex threw a gigantic lightning bolt at the machine's weak spot, but then two thick muscular metallic arms erupted out and punched the lightning away. Another pair of arms erupted out the other side while the olds legs retracted into body. They were replaced with two taller and thicker legs with bird-like talons on the feet that dug into the ground. As the machine stood up the main body trembled as the face crumpled up into a more nightmarish form, complete with a sharp toothed smile. Two more faces appeared on the sides of the machine with a pair of tiny hands covering the eyes of one and the ears of the other. Even with the mouth of the front face covered by similar hands, the Evil Twins still let loose a bellowing laugh.

"We're GODS, puny humans! You cannot fathom our incredible power!" Their upgraded machine crossed it's arms while bringing fear down upon all but Crash and Alex. Alex gripped his sword and moved his fingers towards the colored triggers on the handle _"You want to see the power of a god, you arrogant birds?"_

Suddenly, two of the arms pulled forward and pointed their fingertips at Alex, which glowed and blasted him with bright golden lasers. "Wha-" was all he blurted before the lasers pinned him to the ground and forced the sword from his hands. The machine then swiveled it's upper body towards the rest of the group and the Evil Twins took a moment to revel in Cortex's returned fear.

"Hey, don't feel so bad doctor! After all…we couldn't have done this without ya!" Shina clenched her rapier tightly and while her heart pounded against her chest she closed her eyes and sensed something descending from above. Happily she proclaimed "We're not out of tricks yet! Lemme introduce you to our back-up…"

Part of the roof caved in as a large and familiar machine crashed down between the group and the Evil Twins' monstrosity. Riding the Mecha-Bandicot was Coco, who lifted the head of the machine up while commenting "W-Whoa! I wasn't expecting to have to fight this thing!" Shina quickly grabbed Crash's hand and flew him right up to the cockpit, putting him in before standing on the nose of the machine and brandishing her rapier up at the Evil Twins'.

"I ain't giving up until that artifact piece is ours, even if that means besting the gods!" Shina's aura flared up, filled with determination, and she swung her arms out towards the people around her and exclaimed "This will be OUR victory! You will not destroy us!"

The Evil Twins let out a deep laugh that had a slightly feminine tone mixed within. Then, they said _"You are going to have a bad time…"_ in a chilling manner while swinging their four arms out and causing the room to quake with their power.

 _Next Time: Fight or Flight_


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17: Twin Trouble Final: Insanity Comes to an End**

Recovering from the earlier attack, Alex stands and lifts his head up. The Evil Twins' improved machine aimed one of it's arms his way and fired another golden laser, this time with the boy swinging at it to divert the energy around him. Then he spun around and sliced through another beam that fired in quick succession, slowly moving his fingers towards the triggers. A moment's hesitation and a grit of his teeth led to him thinking _"No…"_

Alex brought his sword forward and covered it in a reflective glass to split the beam left and right as he flew at the machine. One of the other arms swung out and plucked him out like a fly, swatting him against the ceiling hard enough to crack it.

The Evil Twins used their other two hands to point more lasers towards the Mecha Bandicoot, with Shina swinging her arms out and providing aura for defense while Crash and Coco operated the machine together. Each laser shattered the aura with ease, and with a precise blow the Evil Twins blow Shina back. With a spin she lands gracefully on the back of the machine's head and pulled back on her rapier.

A series of her thrusts sent needles of aura into the lower body of the titanic machine, which she then detonated all at once with a pull back on her weapon. All that couldn't even dent the machine, which is when Shina went "Welp!" and with a dispelling of her rapier swung the freed hand towards her bracelet. Two fingers pressed down on the stone with the guns crossed on them, and in a second she is covered by a bright light.

She emerged from it with a changed wardrobe comprised of a sapphire riveted sleeveless shirt, silver stockings, white and green skirt, slender blue military boots, and a pair of holsters on her back and cuffs with a wire connecting them to her aura pistols. She activates the light-blue lens of her scouter and takes aim at the machine, commenting "No weaknesses…Guess I gotta make some!"

Changing the pistols into some manner of weapons with wide but thin barrels. She aims at the machine's fingers and fired swift, concentrated crescents of aura. These "blades" sliced bits of them off and exposed wiring underneath. Looking up, Shina proclaimed "Alex, try and attack-" her lips puckered into an 'o' as she noticed he was still stuck, and thus she quickly glanced back and continued "Errrrr…Cortex! Do what I wanted Alex to do!"

"And what do you expect me to do against that monstrosity?!" Cortex whimpered pathetically, but Nina socked him one on the shoulder and exclaimed "Anything! I'M not gonna sit here and let a pair of birds get the better of us!"

Turning to the machine, Nina waited for one of the arms to swing forth before launching her gauntlet to grapple up to it. She keeps her grip on it even as the arm swings around, using her other gauntlet to throw punches at the face. They were making the upper body flinch but nothing else. Cortex stared with eyes wide before gritting his teeth and shaking his head.

"What am I doing?! They just got a somewhat fancier robot. N. Gin does that on a daily basis!" Cortex took his pistol and charged it, focusing on the openings Shina's made and firing a plasma blast when he gets a chance. At first he misses due to uncertainty, but when a blast connects and one of the hands blows up he turns around and proclaims "Hahaha! Take that you worthless pets!"

Swiftly, wires erupted from the wrist and bundled into the shape of another hand, metal plating layering over it and hardening into a thicker material. Then, with a deep chuckle from the birds they point that hand at Cortex and fire a laser. Shina dives off the Mecha Bandicoot and summons a round shield in front of her arm for defense while firing a few pistol shots from over the shield.

Rolling onto her feet once landing, Shina remarked to the bandicoots "Hey guys, wanna help?!" Coco was holding onto the control sticks while Crash patiently had his fingers near the buttons. "It's too close to attack, we need some distance!"

"Ooooh, yeaaaaah…" Shina nodded and then switched out her pistols for a weapon with a disc at the front. She placed the weapon in the modified holster and pooled aura into it. Backing up until she was beside Cortex, Shina looked up and saw Nina climbing towards the head of the machine before noticing some fire erupting from the hand placed against the ceiling.

Using the sheer heat from around his body, Alex pushed the hand back while letting out a very loud grunt. Once free, he thrust his hands out and sent the flames through the machine's hand to melt it down. Panting as the remaining flames dispersed, Alex could only descend a bit before Shina got his attention "Uhhh, Alex, you might want to be more thorough than that!"

"What are you talking about?" He grumbled in annoyance as the melted arm rises up and regrows it's hand into a fist, giving it a couple good swings and then punching Alex straight across the room as he turned. The boy smashed through the wall of hardened magma while Shina murmured "M-My bad!"

She then squinted her eyes and leaped loftily back onto the Mecha Bandicoot. As the Evil Twins' turned their arms towards the machine, the girl said to the bandicoots "Cover your ears guys!" as she held her pulsating weapon forward. The siblings plugged their ears tightly and with a pull of the trigger Shina unleashed an air distorting shockwave upon the machine.

It had a reverberating sound to it that came out in a wobbly rhythm, and each wave pushed the machine back. The Evil Twins grabbed the sides of their head and proclaimed "W-What is this…music?!" Nina gripped her head as well and muttered angrily "Who could possibly enjoy this drivel?!"

Shina, with eyes closed, banged her head up and down, her hair going crazy as she had a smile brimming from cheek to cheek. When the machine had it's feet at the back of the arena, she finally stopped and parted her weapon into two more pistols. She waved one beside her face and said as the bandicoots unplugged their ears "He's all yours guys."

Crash immediately tapped at the buttons, opening the missile launchers on the shoulders of the Mecha-Bandicoot and bombarding the machine in front of him with a macros of explosions. Nina leaped out and used her hands to grapple across the ceiling away from the madness, eventually falling down beside her exasperated uncle.

The masks continued to observe the fight escalate, with Aku mentioning "It appears we have done all we can for now, brother. This fight is in their hands now." Uka, however, appeared to be in a bit of a wide-eyed daze towards the machine. Cortex looked at the machine with similar awe, and as the machine sealed up any wounds inflicted upon itself the man muttered "Fascinating…"

As him and Uka kept looking at it, their eyes briefly turned yellow while they whispered "Such incredible power…"

Around this time, Alex bursts out of the hole in the wall and immediately flies over to Shina and throws a blunt finger point her way. "Dubstep…really?!" Was his exasperated response. The girl blinked once then changed the topic on a dime "So hey, you noticed that thing's regenerating?"

"Don't try and-" Alex gave her a fierce glare but reorganized his priorities with a shake of the head "Wait, yeah, it is isn't it? Didn't this happen with the Sorceress? This must be the result of the artifact piece."

"Uh-huh! …Oh, hang on a second…" Shina swerved her head and took out her charged pistol to fire a shot through one of the Evil Twins' lasers before it got close. Then the Mecha-Bandicoot continued it's missile assault while she asked Alex "Think you can pry it away from them?"

Alex raised his burning fist up and said "Or I could just destroy the whole thing. I'm pretty good at that." Shina nodded with a nonchalant remark of "That's definitely not debatable, but you might destroy the piece."

"Speaking of that, where's the first one?" Alex inquired with a brow raised, but got a swift and assuring response as Shina tapped the side of her head with a pistol "Don't worry about that now."

"Fine, but I doubt we'll destroy the artifact piece if I rough up the machine." Alex turned and drew his sword towards the machine as the Mecha-Bandicoot finally ran out of missiles. Shina shrugged and said "Just please be careful anyways."

Alex glanced back and saw the Cortexes and the masks standing off to the side. Focusing on Nina as he leaped off the machine, he asked bluntly "Hey, do you think the Mecha-Bandicoot's chainsaw could cut through this machine?"

"Probably? Why?" After her satisfactory answer, Alex nodded his head and turned around to exclaim "Crash, Coco, tear that stupid machine open with the chainsaw! Shina and I will provide you cover!"

Alex ran out past the Mecha-Bandicoot and weaved back and forth past the lasers while remaining confident in himself _"I don't need anything beyond this level of power…It's fine, I can do this!"_ He leaps up high towards the face as a punch was thrown his way. Jerking to the right to dodge it, he then swung his sword and cut the fist in half. Shina lobbed an aura grenade into the vulnerable wires and caused a string of explosions that Alex rode across the stretch of the arm.

The Mecha-Bandicoot crawled across the arena while the chainsaw was raised and revved up. Shina focused as the Evil Twins's stretched their arms and created orbs of golden light in their palms. "Your inferior technology can't match this power!" They fired the orbs down like bombs. From the snout, the Mecha-Bandicoot pushed two of them away with a plasma bolt while Shina rapid-fired a pair of uzis to destroy the remainder with a spray of bullets.

With a smile she said "Well my bracelet is technology too, so who exactly's inferior here again?" and gave a playful wink to the infuriated Evil Twins. The machine swung all four of it's arms out and put energy into a gigantic sphere while Victor yelled "Shut up you worthless little puppet! Like you get to talk tough!"

Their efforts are thrown off when Alex wrapped some vines around their arms and jerked them up. The wrists crunched and the energy dispersed. Alex tightened the vines with a heavy tug and said "Here's your opening!" Victor exclaimed "WRONG!" as he snapped the vines apart and then thrust a hand at Alex.

The boy spun his sword in a circle to slice through the arm. The wires struck out to try and wrap themselves around Alex, but when they did he just smirked and released electricity from his body. The whole machine shook in recoil yet didn't let go, forming a layer of metal around Alex and the wires.

"Tch…!" Alex got rid of his sword and used his hands to burn through the wires until they were loose enough for him to rocket his way out of the fist. He flipped around and landed on the ceiling, folding his hands back to compress some explosive flames into a sphere. The Mecha-Bandicoot was close enough to swing it's chainsaw, but the Evil Twins took two of their hands out and clamped the saw blade between them.

Resistance from the hands caused the blade to start jerking out of alignment a little. Shina put her weapons away and swung her hands out to place some aura shields between the hands and the saw. As the Evil Twins' used their other hands to fire beams up at Alex in futility, they no longer had any defenses.

"Now Crash!" Coco proclaimed with a fierce expression as the bandicoot presses the 'Let 'er Rip' button with a lot of energy. With an echoing whirr, the chainsaw rose up and then slammed against the front of the Evil Twins' machine. Sparks flew as the machine trembled in place, slowly torn through until there's a huge gash down the center of it's face.

Alex widened his eyes and pushed himself off the ceiling, spinning around so his bundled fire was pointed right at the gash. The wires couldn't even emerge from the sides of the gash as he launched the sphere into the machine. He quickly grounded himself and with a raise of his hand as he turned around manifested a huge metal wall.

As the machine sealed up, it's eyes widened as Victor went "Oh crud…" The entire machine exploded in a resounding 'Kablooey!', its parts flying every which way. Shina covered the magma with aura just to be safe with the artifact piece. Just as quickly as it happened, the explosion ended and Alex put the wall down. Shina looked up at the bandicoots and said "Great teamwork everyone!"

She jumped onto the snout and leaned forth for a high-five, getting a slow one from Coco and a swift one from Crash. She then pumped her fist and flipped back onto the ground, deactivating her Gunslinger Drive as Alex approach the smoke residing from the blast. In the middle of it he heard some coughs, to which he blew the smoke away with a gust of wind to find the Evil Twins limping out of the bent up cage.

Neither of them held the stone, but that was the least on Alex's mind as he folded his arms and tapped his foot in front of them. Maurice looked at his brother and said "Uhhh…I think we played all our cards Victor. We might want to scram!" Victor quickly nodded his head and said "Y-Yeah! Lets make a break for it!"

They tried to fly, but were already stuck to the ground by some steel cords wrapped around their legs. Alex raised his brows as they struggled for a bit, with Victor in particular swinging his wings out and exclaiming "N-Now h-h-hey…wait a second there. Kid, buddy, pal…W-We had some good times right? R-Remember how funny it was when I pulled Cortex's brain out and played catch with it?"

Alex lifted an arm up and tugged at the bottom of his glove, pointing a couple fingers from that at the Evil Twins. "Yeah, hilarious…" His voice far from humored made the birds gulp, Victor pleading with nervous laughter "Now come on…W-We're like this because of the Tenth Dimension! We can turn over a new leaf, honest!"

"Was that on your mind when you wanted to destroy Crash's world…Turning over a new leaf?" Alex firmly glared into their eyes, and meekly Victor said "Y-Yeees?" Alex shook his head and lifted it a little before saying "You don't redeem with empty words. I know that…"

"Then let us prove-"

"Maybe you'd convince Shina with that drivel…Not me." Alex set his gloved hand on fire and told them coldly "Now…Flame-broiled, or slow-cooked?"

"Oh, oh! I love flame-broiled!" Maurice proclaimed innocently. Victor swung his head and said "Maurice, NO!" But he wouldn't get to slap him as Alex flicked his fingers up and created a small fire to quickly roast the Evil Twins until they were turned into two golden roasted chickens.

Maurice waggled his wings and said "Hey look bro, I'm delicious!" excitedly. Victor sighed and murmured "Had to end it with a joke eh?" before they both suddenly turned to crisp black piles of ash.

Alex let out a sigh and turned around "At least THOSE reality-benders are gone…" He saw Shina was focused on going through the rubble along with Crash, Coco, and surprisingly Nina and Cortex. The boy put his hands in his pockets and grumbled.

"Really should do something about Cortex, but I guess that can wait until we're back in the other dimension." Alex mused to himself quietly before approaching Shina from behind.

"Any luck?" He asked before lazily pulling a hand out to lift up a piece of metal she was having trouble with. Shina got on her knees and stretched out to check under every nook and cranny.

"Nooope. Dunno how it wasn't on the Evil Twins, but at least their machine won't came to life on us." As Alex looked at her body, he quickly blushed and turned aside while stuttering "Y-Yeah, we can only hope."

Shina stood up and stretched before turning to the left. Her eyes lit up and she proclaimed "Hey, Cortex found it!" Alex flinched as she ran over to him, noticing that the doctor was standing awfully still with the artifact piece gripped tightly in his right hand. An uneasy fell over the boy as he told Shina "Uhhh, Shina, you might not want to-"

It was too late, the girl stood next to Cortex and clapped her hands together while asking "I can't believe you found it Cortex! I'd like to have it now, if you would please…" She held her hand out, but after a few seconds a grin crossed Cortex's shaking head.

"No…I don't think I will." Cortex turned, his eyes filled with a grisly yellow light as the black aura started to surround his body "Don't you think all this power shouldn't be wasted? Hehehehe…!"

"U-Uncle Cortex?" Nina took pause as she looked at him, while Uka-Uka proclaimed "Cortex, you fool! I was supposed to be the one to find that!"

Cortex turned to the mask and said "Well Uka-Uka…Perhaps you wouldn't mind sharing this power?" To which the mask's mouth went agape and he stammering "R-Really?!"

"ENOUGH of this!" Alex proclaimed as he lunged at Cortex from behind. The doctor turned and raised his other hand. A blast of air struck both Alex and Shina to push them back. The boy widened his eyes a little and said "Wind? …No, that had to be…psychic energy?"

Cortex flexed his fingers and said in ecstasy "Oh that reeeeeeeally felt good. And I'm just getting started, _boy_." He then turned to Nina and said "And this power can be yours as well, my dear, dear niece. Think of it as an early birthday present…"

Nina shook her head as Uka-Uka proclaimed "Have it your way, idiot!" and flew over to Cortex, getting swallowed up in the black aura. The mask's voice deepened a little as he proclaimed "Yes yes YES! This is incredible…I feel great!"

"What's the matter Nina?" Cortex inquired, with her telling him honestly "S-Something's not right here uncle! Let go of that rock before the power controls you!" Normally, such concern would grab the attention of a person in Cortex's situation…but those people aren't Cortex, who instead shook his head and held a hand up at Nina while saying "How disappointing…"

A psychic blast threw Nina across the room, knocking her unconscious when she smashed into a wall. Cortex then folded his arms and floated off the ground as Uka-Uka floated around his body. Shina gasped and exclaimed "What are you doing?! That was a family member!"

"Oh spare me the spiel." Cortex waved his hand out while rolling his eyes, grinning wider as he broke into a joyous laugh.

"You can't even BEGIN to imagine how great this feels! All this suffering, all this nonsense was WORTH it to obtain this much power! Now…nothing can stand in my way again! No more bandicoots, no more humiliation, none of it! I will use this power in combination with the Psychotron and merge all dimensions to create the perfect CORTEX DIMENSION!" Cortex's aura flared in tune with his roaring laughter.

Alex and Shina drew their weapons, with Alex proclaiming "You're only powerful so long as you hold that artifact Cortex!" Cortex turned to him and laughed some more, replying bluntly "Oh pleaaase…Enough of your bravado, boy. After all…"

With an ominous grin as his eyes were consumed by yellow light, Cortex said with a strangely distorted voice _"This is your mistake…just like it always is…"_ At a crawl, Alex's mouth went agape, broken only by the thunderous footsteps of the Mecha-Bandicoot that Coco and Crash was piloting again.

"You're insane Cortex! We're not going to let you get away with this!" Coco proclaiming as Aku-Aku spun around the machine, filling it with every bit of magic he could muster in order to increase it's defensive capabilities. When the mask was done he panted beside Crash and said "So once again…we must fight…brother…"

"There was never going to be peace between us, Aku! This universe belongs to me, it has always been my birthright! So long as Cortex has his head on straight, I will use him and this power to inflict a thousand years of suffering on all who oppose me! MWAHAHAHAHAH!"

Alex swung his gloved fist out and set it on fire, proclaiming with burning rage "It's all about you, isn't it?! Self-absorbed maniacs like you two should never be allowed to have power! We're going to put an end to this, right here, RIGHT NOW!"

Shina nodded her head in agreement and activated her Gunslinger Drive again, aiming her pistols at the man while declaring "This…is for the hopes and dreams of my family and people!" Cortex held his hands out and mockingly said "So be it…"

Taking his new psychic powers for a test drive, Cortex spun a telekinetic tornado around the edge of the arena, picking up the debris of the Evil Twins' machine along with some magma. With power overflowing from his body to the point of his head becoming filled with veins, Cortex proclaimed "Now! It's time for all of you fools…to perish!"

 _Next Time: Cortex Strikes Back_


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18: The Wrath of Cortex**

Cortex begins this desperate battle by hovering ten feet higher and holding his arms out to condense his newfound psychic powers into ear-grating green sparks. His eyes and smile teeming with glee, he pointed his hands at the Mecha-Bandicoot as it prepared it's missile launchers and proclaimed "You pesky bandicoots, I shall use one-hundred percent of my brain to best you this time!"

His hands loftily thrust forth but he was disrupted by a loud 'Bang!' coming from a large bullet that Uka-Uka blocked from the left. Looking to find that Shina was kneeling to use a sniper rifle, the mask had a hearty chuckle and added to Cortex's earlier comment "Of course, two heads are FAR better than one!" The darkness around his body gathered inward until he sent forth an uncontained spherical mass of black lightning down at her.

Shina dodged with a back flip even as the sphere exploded in a twelve foot radius, burning through part of the floor. She wasted no time in switching to a pair of uzis and rapid-firing at Uka, who used his energy to act as Cortex's shield without a care. "Ahhh…it's like a nice frontal massage." He said mockingly.

He looked back and continued "For once, you did something right Cortex." The doctor was in the middle of pushing back a plasma bolt from the Mecha-Bandicoot with streams of psychic electricity. Replying with gusto "Now I'll never be mocked again. All you infidels in this world, nay, all worlds, shall bow before the Cortex Empire I shall build!"

With one heartier thrust the doctor's electricity grew and destroyed the plasma, simultaneously striking the Mecha-Bandicot. Aku's protection nullified most of the damage but still left the machine shaking. Coco grunted as she gripped the controls tightly and then looked back at her brother "Crash, we have to be careful, we don't have many options here!"

"Oh…you certainly got that right, you overconfident brat!" Coco was shocked to find Cortex having suddenly warped in front of them with a grin that could scare a dingo. The doctor slammed his hands down upon the snout of the Mecha-Bandicoot and concentrated enough for the veins on his head to throb. The metal slowly crunched down like tin foil, at least until an ivory pair of vines found themselves tightly wrapping around both the doctor and Uka-Uka.

"Of course, it's hi-" Cortex's expression was dull as his body was thrown back onto the ground from an aggressive wave of the hand by Alex. With his body bounding up after he made an impact, the boy released the constraints and exclaimed "Shina, get the artifact piece!"

Quickly changing to a grappling claw weapon with a nod of the head, Shina focused on Cortex with her scouter and caught the stone hovering around his body. Firing the claw, Shina pumped her fist excitedly, unaware of the vile grin on Cortex's face.

Within a second, space distorted around both the doctor and Alex, and a second more was all it took for the boy to find his position swapped with Cortex's. The event didn't have time to register until he found himself grabbed and pulled in by Shina's claw. She widened her eyes and quickly swerved to the right while turning her weapon back into a pair of pistols. The boy then flew past her and rolled on the ground for a bit.

On his belly, Alex muffled out "Warping powers? …You got to be kidding me…" He slowly pushed himself up only for Cortex to warp beside him and say in a taunting manner "Oh you'd just LOOOOVE for that to be the case, wouldn't you?"

The boy turned his head and halfway drew his sword only to be disrupted by Cortex kicking him hard in the gut. Powered by psychic energy, this kick made Alex feel like his guts had curled into a fleshy mess. He reeled onto his backside as Cortex kept kicking him and proclaiming "Where's your power NOW?! Who's worthless NOW?!"

"Hahahaha…! You're nothing but a stupid, arrogant, b-" Cortex was distracted again by a 'Ping' coming from a shot reflected off of Uka's face. Then, Shina quickly proclaimed "Alex, take cover!" as she created a rocket launcher hoisted over her shoulder.

His body recovered, Alex grabbed the floor and pulled a layer of metal over himself as Shina let loose a big aura rocket. Cortex's expression drooped as it went too fast for him to escape, and his mutter of "Oh dear…" was subsequently drowned by the huge explosion that went off.

Cortex was pushed to the edge of the arena, the aura around him and Uka flickering quite a bit. Shina switched to her pistols again and took aim, telling him bluntly "You're still human under all that power. It'll be a cinch to knock you out!" She clicked the triggers but nothing came out. Blushing brightly, the girl giggled and placed her weapons in her holsters.

"Ehehe…whoops!"

Cortex scowled as the aura solidified, rising up and swinging his arms beside his head. "Foolish! It's time-" "For my attack!" The doctor was puzzled by that being simultaneously said by another, yet once he recognized the tone he looked down to find Alex popping out of the ground quicker than a blink of the eye. The boy connected with a burning uppercut to the doctor's chin, and with a rising spiral he dragged him straight towards the ceiling.

"Grrrrrr…!" With frustration manifesting as snarled nostrils, Cortex quickly swapped places with Alex and thrust his hands up to use the boy's speed against him. He was sent crashing through the ceiling hard enough to dislodge chunks of rock. Cortex picked them up and turned around, warping his way close to the Mecha-Bandicoot.

Covering the rocks in his psychic energy, Cortex smiled and said "Now where were we…" before raising a finger up and continuing with a cocky look of remembrance "Oh right…Killing the both of you!"

Swinging these enforced rocks out, Cortex battered at the Mecha-Bandicoot's protection with persisting diligence, warping out of the way of every swing of the chainsaw. Uka protected his backside from any projectiles from Shina, and in a matter of seconds the doctor was putting some decent sized dents into the machine's frame.

"To think it took something like this to realize how paper-thin my machine's defenses are. WhatEVER was I thinking?" Cortex snidely commented on himself, unaware of the fact that Shina was sliding under his body while spraying a stream of bullets from her pistols. Uka got under for protection while commenting "Nice try, girl! But you won't catch us unaware again!"

Shina wiggled her back a bit to push onto her feet, quickly turning around and using her momentum to leap onto the front of the Mecha-Bandicoot and kicked off it towards Cortex. She changed her guns and swung both of them down, only for Cortex to casually gesture his hand out to block the attacks with a barrier.

"Really now, how desperate are you?" He mocked accordingly, unaware of the smile hiding behind the girl's crossed arms. Her guns started beeping a warning signal of sorts and she let go, jumping back onto the Mecha-Bandicoot's snout and swinging her arm out to create a thick wall of aura that obscured everyone behind it. Her weapons blew up in front of Cortex, sending him hurtling back towards the edge of the arena once more.

"Grrrr…How does she keep doing that?!" He exclaimed angrily as he stabilized himself and swung his arms up to connect with the debris and magma swirling in the psychic vortex behind him. Pulling the molten metal out, Cortex cooled and condensed them into the sharpest spears and took aim at the aura wall. "Oh well…she won't be for much longer…" He said quietly and coldly.

Behind the aura, Shina turned to Coco and Crash and said "Hey, I think he can't warp us around unless he can see us. So try and stay out of his line of-" She flinched as a couple spears ripped through her aura wall and lodged into the Mecha-Bandicoot through Aku's protection. Shina turned and proclaimed "Whoa whoa! He's off his rocker!"

She stayed on the snout of the machine as it leaped back without any further damage, but in mid-air it was vulnerable to the magma balls that Cortex was flinging over the walls. Shina summoned another wall of aura while drawing a couple more pistols, but her defense wasn't needed as Alex leaped in front of the magma and from his hands gushed out torrents of water to turn the magma into cracked rock.

Then he sped in front of both rocks and kicked them at Cortex. The doctor pushed them back with a burst of psychic energy yet Alex kept returning them with equally powerful arm thrusts. They two engaged in a tennis match with rocks for a while, with Alex trying to throw the doctor off by throwing fireballs in between the rocks, but Cortex pushed the rocks around to swallow them up.

Alex punched one of the rocks with a fist coursing with electricity, shattering the stone and sending a giant thunderbolt at Cortex. The other stone was destroyed, to Cortex's surprise, but he swerved his hands around and curled the electricity into a sphere before his chest. Then he swapped places with Alex and with a snap of the fingers caused the electricity to blow up and send the boy hurtling towards the vortex.

Alex swung his arms back and pushed himself away with a burst of air, rocketing towards Cortex and trying to punch him in the back of the head. Uka blocked the punch with his darkness, though Alex simply kept building up fire in his fist while gritting his teeth.

"Shina, now!" He exclaimed. The girl leaped off the Mecha-Bandicoot and made a sphere of aura around herself. She positioned a couple of guns with needles through holes in the sphere and leapt out, flying the sphere and firing needles at Cortex. The doctor waved a psychic barrier up to grab the needles out of the air and try to fire them back, but Shina was too agile to get hit.

"Accursed girl!" Cortex frustratingly bemoaned until a spark of inspiration got him to fire the needles down at the Mecha-Bandicoot, only for him to be caught off-guard when it fired a plasma shot. He couldn't concentrate enough to push it back along with the abundant needles and was struck hard by the attack. This pushed him back into Uka, which in turn distracted him enough for Alex to break through his guard and punch the mask with enough force to send him crashing into the ground.

With his defenses down, Alex swung his other hand out for the artifact piece floating behind Cortex, but the doctor warped away just as his fingers grazed the stone. The boy pulled back and snapped his fingers with a scowl, only for a chill to cross his spine as Cortex ended up behind him with both hands placed on his back. The doctor released psychic energy and Alex felt his innards crunching slightly before he's sent hurtling towards the ground.

In that time Uka-Uka got back up beside the doctor and shook himself, remarking "How annoying…" in a barely fazed manner. Shina fired some more needles at Cortex that hovered in front of him, but as he shook his head he ignored the faint glow coming from them. He shouldn't have been surprised when his arrogance led to more explosions to his face.

But this time the blasts came in a string that pushed him further towards the ground until he was planted on it. "Ghhh…Just how many types of explosions do you have?!" Cortex stamped his foot a couple times, his outburst ill-timed since there were about ten missiles flying his way.

"Cortex, enough with the tantrums!" Uka warned just in the nick of time for the doctor to swing his arms up and catch the missiles with his powers. "HAHA!" He gloated. Alex, however, set all the missiles off with a net of lightning to push Cortex back with the explosions.

The boy gripped a fist before his chest as he shook on his feet, exclaiming to the doctor "You're outnumbered, and outmatched!" Cortex grit his teeth as his eyes flared bright, and as he dragged himself off the ground he cracked his knuckles and proclaimed "I am the greatest scientific mind in the entire universe!"

"Please, I've seen fungus smarter than you." Alex rolled his eyes and brushed a hand out cockily. Irritated, Cortex dragged some metal from the vortex and condensed them into more spears. Then he raised the ground below Alex's feet and threw the spears his way.

Alex drew his sword to cut them down, but Cortex warped himself in place of the spears and fired a blast of psychic energy to push the boy to the ground. He then ducked so the spears would keep flying past him and towards the Mecha-Bandicoot's cockpit. Cortex kept throwing psychic blasts out to keep Alex on the ground, remarking all the way "Why won't you break already? Uuuugh…your body is as stubborn as your personality!"

Meanwhile, Shina got in the way of the spears and used a pair of guns with blade near the barrels to slice them in half. Then he took aim at Cortex in combination with the Mecha-Bandicoot, and once she converted the weapons into a pair of missile launchers they fired off an overwhelming barrage at the doctor.

Cortex lifted his head up and with a gigantic wave of psychic energy caught every last missile and crunched them down into a massive heap. He didn't pay attention as Alex grinned and pointed up to send a spark of fire to set the missiles off, creating an incredible explosion that Shina protected the Mecha-Bandicoot from with aura even as it cracked.

Alex, however, let himself get hit by the explosion as he kicked off the ground and charged at Cortex, obscured by the smoke. When Uka went for defense, Alex grabbed the mask by the sides and kneed him hard in the face to send him flying. Then he sent a barrage of fists at Cortex, forcing the doctor to put up another psychic defense.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Alex enjoyed the heat of combat with a passionate grin as he kept going at it without end, Cortex being pushed further and further back with every punch he stopped. His brain throbbed and ached against the walls of his skull as he thought _"H-How can this be?! Why can't I still win?!"_

" _Fufufu…you're not letting go enough, doctor."_

" _What?! Who's there?!"_ Cortex widened his eyes to the sound of an unknown voice.

" _A marsupial besting you was not enough was it…? Truly, an arrogant child and a wayward girl have no right to best you either, do they?"_

" _No…No they do NOT!"_ Cortex grinned widely and his aura flared up before he exclaimed "ENOUGH of this!" with a roaring vigor. Releasing a blast of psychic energy more powerful than before to blow Alex away, Cortex warped behind him and turned to place his hands on his back, again releasing psychic power to try and break him.

Alex grit his teeth and felt life fleeting from his body in agony as the bones in his spine cracked. Shina charged at Cortex from behind and tried to fire a salvo of pistol shots to disrupt him, but all that did was leave him aware she was coming. With a grin he let go of Alex and warped close to the Mecha-Bandicoot. They tried to attack him with the chainsaw, but Cortex held it back and with a swipe of his hand cut it off from the rest of the machine.

Then he grabbed the chainsaw and used it to slice off the other arm of the Mecha-Bandicoot. He held it above his head and then with his eyes glowing he struck Crash, Coco and Aku with a deep paralysis. Their mouths left agape, the three could only stare into the abyss surrounding the doctor's body as he grit his teeth and appeared to be sweating.

"Hahaha…Oh how LONG I have waited for this, bandicoot! You…you and all of your annoying allies have been constant THORNS in my side for far too long! It all started with your creation Crash…Everything has been a constant spiral of failures over! And over! AND OVER! Once you join Victor and Maurice in death, that'll be the end of my unattended failures. Cortex…WILL STAND TRIMUPHANT! NOW DIE, CRASH BANDICOOT!"

"What good is victory if you're alone?"

Cortex glanced back and found Shina dangerously close to him, her arms stretched out as she was going for the artifact piece. Gritting his teeth as he began to swing the chainsaw down, he exclaimed "GET AWAY FROM ME YOU INSOLENT BRAT!"

His head throbbed again as he unleashed an incredible discharge of psychic energy. Shina gripped and pulled the stone tightly even as the energy shredded miniscule bits of her armor. "I-I'm not going anywhere!" She said with strained determination. Cortex looked ahead and saw the chainsaw was suspended halfway through the swing.

Alex could be seen barely holding himself upright as he held a hand out and kept Uka-Uka under the heel of his shoe. "H-Hurry up Shina!" He proclaimed as Cortex, with another surge of energy, pushed the chainsaw closer and shredded more of Shina's armor. The girl pulled as hard as her lithe arms could, using aura for added protection while Cortex was pushing his mind to the absolute limit just to keep everything together.

"D-Darn it! STOP IT, I WILL NOT BE MADE A MOCKERY OF AGAIN!"

"Sorry but, ya will. Cause you fight only for yourself Cortex, and selfish villains like you will never…" With one incredibly strong tug, Shina rips the artifact piece away from Cortex's vicinity and exclaims triumphantly "WIN!"

The aura around Cortex snaps away in an instant along with every fragment of psychic energy he mustered. The vortex around the arena dies out and everything drops into the magma moat with a glorious cascading splash. Unfrozen, the bandicoots and Aku watch as the chainsaw plummets harmlessly to the ground. Coco and Aku catch their breaths while Crash smiles and shrugs.

Finally, with the backlash of energy too much to bear, Cortex drops to the ground and falls unconscious after a brief and melancholy groan. Shina drops to the ground and turns back to normal, holding the artifact piece high above her head and doing a victorious twirl.

"Yaaay! We finally got the second piece!" Her triumph, for a moment, brought a smile to Alex's face…At least until Uka-Uka bemoaned "Of COURSE Cortex found a way to botch this." The boy drowned the mask's voice by trapping him in a metal sphere that he punted over to Cortex's body.

Despite the kinks in his back, Alex took in a deep breath and walked over to Shina, telling her while barely containing his weak tone of voice "Y-You can say that again." The girl gasped and said in concern "Oh geez Alex, why and how are you still walking?"

"W-What? Don't worry about that…My back is fiiiiiiiire! It's on fire!" Alex felt a sharp pain through his body when Shina went and laid a hand on his back. She rubbed it a little and then bent down, putting that hand through his shirt and resting it on the middle of the spine. Alex jerked his head up and let out a shivering groan while Shina lowered her eyebrows and said "Please don't budge, it makes this harder…"

Her hand glowed with aura, and it took a few seconds of enduring the pain for Alex to end up with some relief going through his body. Standing back up, Shina advised gently "Just don't push yourself for a bit and you should be fine." He let out a puzzled "H-How did you…"

"It's a technique my mom taught me for healing. I-I'm not that good with it…" Shina chuckled embarrassingly, and Alex told her with a flabbergasted glare "Like heck you aren't, I feel like I got a couple years back with that!"

"Aren't you too young to say that?" Shina inquired in a humored tone. Alex shook his head and carefully stood upright, telling her "W-Whatever, forget about it. So now this is the part where we just kill Cortex, right?"

Shocked, Shina proclaimed "What? NO! We're going to be stranded here without him!" Alex widened his eyes and said "Oh yeah, I guess Nina would refuse to help if we killed her uncle too…Buuuuut after we're back?"

"Mmm mmm!" Shina swung her head with a puffy pout, telling Alex bluntly "I don't want another human's blood on our hands, ok?"

The boy widened his eyes and in a flash saw a skeleton lying on the ground in the middle of some ruins. Glancing aside with his fingers quivering in his pockets, Alex murmured "Y-Yeah…fine. Look, I think we're ALL tired now, so lets just get back to the laboratory and sort the rest of it out there."

He looks up at the bandicoots and said "That fine with you guys?" Coco responded tiredly "This was really insane…I STILL don't get what even happened."

"That's probably for the best." Alex said as he bent down to pick up Cortex and Uka-Uka. Shina tucked the artifact piece in the back of her pants and went to go get Nina. Deciding to leave the Mecha-Bandicoot behind, Crash and Coco got out of it and along with Aku joined the duo in leaving this wicked lair behind. The wrath of Cortex and his once beloved pet birds Victor and Maurice had finally come to an end…

 _Next Time: Departure, my friend…_


	19. Final Chapter

**Final Chapter: A Friend for the First Time**

After a dull but relaxed trip back to the laboratory, the group climb their way to the top and dropped Nina and Cortex on the ground in the Psychotron room. Alex stretched back and felt only a tinge of pain from his spine.

"Aaaaah, that's much better. Hey, if this doesn't work out Shina, maybe you can get a job as a masseuse." Alex stood up and wiggled his head left and right before looking back to the bandicoots, who were sitting down and catching their breath.

"You guys holding up ok?" He asked with a light gesture. Crash slanted back and flopped against the ground while Coco murmured "I could do without any more excitement for a long time, if that's alright…"

Shrugging and looking back ahead, Alex muttered "Least you didn't end up like Spyro." Then he found Shina peeking around the computer that activates the Psychotron. She reached inside a cabinet on the right and pulled out the first artifact piece.

"THAT was your hiding place?" He commented in utter disbelief as he approached her. She turned around with a piece in each hand and nodded delightfully. She then took and connected them together, fitting them in place perfectly. With a couple gentle tugs she couldn't even separate them.

"Awesome! That's one less thing to worry about!" Shina bounced merrily a couple times, but dour as he was Alex let out a 'tsk' and reminded her "Despite the fact you'll have to carry that whole thing around. We're not always going to have the convenience of hiding spots, I'd imagine."

Shina laid a finger beside her cheek and with a couple taps suggested "Uhhh maybe we can try and find Cortex's shrink ray?" Having a thought exerting sneer plastered on his face, Alex whispered "Is that game even CANON in this world?"

Shina looked over to Aku and without care exclaimed "Hey Aku! I know this is out of the blue, but did Cortex ever shrink the Earth?!" The mask raised his brows and responded "I-I do believe that happened three years ago, why do you ask?"

"Thanks!" Without answering Shina blurted that politely and turned to Alex, who of course had his own qualms and voiced them bluntly "So what, we're just going to carry around a giant shrink ray every time we want to store the artifact pieces?"

"We could if we shrink the shrink ray!" Shina raised a finger during her response, but after holding it for a bit and staring into Alex's dull expression she chuckled and admitted "Y-Yeah, that is a bit of a stretch isn't it?"

"Look, I'm sure we can figure something out here." Alex reached into his pockets and wiggled the Gaia Temporis in his finger tips. With a blink of the eyes he glanced down and thought _"I wonder…"_

He was distracted by Shina waving the combined artifact together like a rattle. The girl commented "Huh, not getting any aura out of this. Guess we need to go back first." Alex sighed and said "No duh. I'm just glad this leg of the journey is finally over."

He started to turn but was accosted by a hug from Shina. Her chest pressed against the side of his neck brought a flush of red to his face, but the embrace did not last long as she quickly pulled away and looked a bit embarrassed herself. Surprising Alex, she scratched the side of her nose and muttered "I-I'm sorry, I was so caught up in happiness I forgot our…y-you know…"

"O-Oh yeah…THAT." Alex shook his head a couple times and brought his arms folded before his chest, mentioning with a tap of his foot "Look, if you're fine with it, can we just forget that whole thing happened? We both were real donkey rears."

"Y-Yeah! That's probably the best idea!" Shina said with some hesitation before Alex glared at her and commented "Now don't get the wrong mindset here Shina, I'm not saying to forget the points of the argument, just how heated the whole thing got."

"U-u…ohhhh…" Shina curled her lips into a slight pucker and looked away, earning an irked response from the boy "Shina, seriously?"

The girl closed her eyes and let out a drawn out sigh, fiddling her fingers on the artifact she stared at before giving an admonishing whisper to herself "Shina, don't be stupid again…I know that's hard, but…" She then looked at Alex and told him "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean for it to come off that way, Alex."

Shina gripped the artifact and held it before her waist, closing her eyes and murmuring "W-What happened after our argument got me thinking…I was being really, really, REALLY stupid." Alex slowly raised his brows and said intrigued "Go on…"

"This was never a burden I could handle on my own. I started this whole thing seeking YOUR help, ya know?" Her grip on the artifact tightened and with a grin obviously forced she continued "These worlds are wonderful when they're behind a screen, but they're scarier in reality…"

" _Took you long enough to realize it."_ Alex grumbled with a partially impressed smile as Shina went on to say "I was in over my head from the start, and I was seconds away from dooming my people…and more importantly my-"

Interrupting bluntly, Alex asked "Shina, I don't want a long-winded realization. Look me in the eyes and tell me what you'll take away from this." The girl stuttered "I-I was getting to that!" in an offended manner.

She then took in a deep breath and with a glare brimming with her innocence and honesty she told him "I will do everything I can to focus on getting the other artifact pieces. It'll be really hard, but I will try my best to stay focused and determined."

"Well alright then, that's better. I'm holding you to that though."

"Uh-huh! I mean…we're kind of stuck together now, aren't we?" Shina giggled, and a humored Alex responded "Pffft, with the world's most stubborn brand of glue."

Their talk is interrupted by some groans coming from Nina. Shina turned and walked over as the girl stood up and rubbed her head. "Urgghh…I can't believe uncle did that…" The first thing Nina saw was that everyone was alive, including Cortex, and she immediately turned to Shina and murmured "Why am I not surprised?"

"Enjoy your rest, sleepy-head?" Shina said as her usual perky self. Nina mustered a groan and said in a snobby tone "It was great, fantastic in fact! So let me guess, you guys are going to force me to take you back home."

"Force is such a harsh word Nina. We're hoping ya choose to do this willingly." Shina smiled as she held her arms back. Nina commented "Well I'd just looooove to help, but I don't know how to set the coordinates to get us back."

"Why am I not surprised…" Alex bemoaned while rubbing his forehead and sighing. Shina raised a hand up and covered it in aura, looking to Cortex with a mischievous grin.

"I got an idea!" Shina walked over to Cortex and with hand lowered she wiggled it back and forth. A hand of aura appeared and slapped Cortex across the face multiple times, but he didn't budge. Nina swiftly pushed Shina aside and said "You're too soft. Watch…this!"

In her infinite kindness, Nina lifted Cortex up by the collar and slapped him hard with her giant metal hand. "Wake up! Come on you egotistical uncle, wake up!" Shina squirmed with every hit and eventually looked away. It didn't take long for Cortex to snap awake with widened eyes, but he kept getting slapped a couple times while stammering "I - am - awake - NINA!"

His angry proclamation is what got her to finally stop, but not without a smile and comment "What, I can't have a little fun?" She let go and allowed him to get on his feet. After a bit of tongue wiggling he spat a tooth out on the ground and had his hands on his head.

"Ooooh, how painful…I need some aspirin." Cortex couldn't have been referring to the smack down Nina gave, and Alex told him "You don't get to play dumb Cortex. We all know what you did."

The doctor hung his head and his expression could only be described as one of mortification. He shook a little bit and stuttered "I-I did do something horrible, didn't I? Something far viler than I could ever have done…"

Alex grit his teeth and moved towards the man angrily "Enough of your-!" Shina held him back with an arm out and whispered "Wait, let him continue…"

Cortex muttered unhinged "I-It was like I was a prisoner in my own body…I was myself, but I wasn't. It was…s-so cold, a-and there was this whisper…"

Aku floated towards the doctor and told him bluntly "And you expect us to believe you? After all the other times you've lied and deceived us?" Cortex exclaimed "I-I swear I'm telling the truth!"

Alex, logging that away, muttered "Y-Yeah…! Don't try and scamper out of this!" before whispering to Shina "We'll talk about this later" and choosing to approach the doctor. With his bluntness, the boy told Cortex "The only reason you're still alive is because you need to operate the Psychotron."

"The…? O-Oh right, the Psychotron…Yes yes, I should get us back home now, right…" Cortex weakly wobbled over to the console for the machine, everyone staring at him with caution. Alex tapped his arms and thought _"Is it actually possible he's telling the truth?"_

The doctor shook his head and tapped away at the console until the Psychotron activated. The usual space-time warp happened and the entire lab was taken back to Crash's dimension. Nina looked around and inquired "Did it work?" to which Alex replied "Well I'm sensing a lot more ice than was there before."

"Congrats uncle, you pulled it off." Nina commented. The doctor let out a decent chuckle before turning around to show a smile on his face. "You know what, that felt pretty good. A single success out of a mountain of failures was enough to brighten my day…"

He was doing a horrible job hiding the fact that he was tapping away at the console some more. Alex glanced over at Crash and Coco as they were both resting and then slowly wiggled his right fingers around, focusing back on Cortex as he said "But you know what would REALLY brighten my day?"

The Psychotron's laser gun started to turn towards the bandicoots, with Cortex gripping his fist tightly in front of him and exclaiming "To be rid of you pesky bandicoots…FOREVER!" Alex and Shina looked at each other with dull expression and muttered "Called it" to their own surprise. As Cortex fired a beam from the Psychotron at the bandicoots, Alex stepped to the right and flipped his fingers to cause a reflective piece of metal to rise from the ground. It intercepted the beam and sent it right at Cortex, who could only widen his eyes and mutter "…Oh why did I even bother…" before being zapped.

In a moment that could not be explained, the zapped Cortex became one with the beam as it shattered the console for the machine and then bounced back over to Crash's head. The bandicoot woke upright and raised his right eye in surprise, then poked the side of his head. With a grin he stood up to be greeted by the confused gazes from Nina and Aku.

"W-What just happened?" Nina inquired in a puzzled tone. Alex grinned and replied "I think your uncle's going to be spending quite a bit of time in Crash's head, sorry to say."

The girl turned around and looked at both the boy and Crash for a while, weighing her options before gritting her teeth and quickly making a rush for the metal sphere containing Uka-Uka. She turned around and said hastily "I-I'm just going to go back to school now, bye bye!" No effort was made to stop her as she rushed out the door, much to Aku's chagrin.

"Was that really a good idea?" He reluctantly asked, with Alex telling him "Oh please, she won't be able to cause any trouble for a long, looooong time."

"I suppose that is true, but I have to ask…What happened to Cortex?" Aku asked will looking concerned towards Crash.

In the deep blank recesses of Crash's mind, Cortex was screaming in agony as hundreds of bandicoots danced before him.

Alex grinned wider than ever before and said "Hahahah, I'm sure he's having a great time." Aku's glare forced the boy to tell him "Look, he's not going to infect Crash's mind with evil. He'll be fine…You guys can go home and relax now."

The mask closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh as Crash walked up and patted him on the back. With a smile looked Alex and Shina in the eyes and expressed joyously "We owe you two a great debt for your assistance. Please, if there is anything we can do for you, then do not be afraid to ask."

Shina said while waving the artifact around "Well since you helped us claim this, I'd say we're even! Just listen to Alex on this, alright?" The mask nodded his head and turned to see Crash carrying Coco on his back as she continued to sleep.

With a giggle the girl said "But we'll still see you guys off…ya know, just in case there's no boat waiting for ya." Then, leaving the laboratory behind, the group made their way to the shore of the icy island and found the native's canoe still there. The bandicoots and Aku boarded it. With Crash waving at them, Shina leaned forward and exclaimed "It was nice meeting you guys! Make sure to have lots of fun, and I hope we can meet again someday!"

Crash, with a smile brimming wide, opened his mouth and said "Bye-bye!" as the boat started to depart. Aku glanced at the bandicoot with eyes nearly popping out of his sockets. Alex stammered like a baby while Shina pumped her fist and proclaimed "Cool! That's a memory to smile about later!"

Folding his arms, Alex muttered "Guess that's saner than everything else…" He then put his hands into his pockets and upon feeling the Gaia Temporis again whispered "Oh, right…" and looked at Shina.

"Hey, can I see the artifact for a moment? There's something I want to try…" Alex waved his left hand towards himself and Shina handed it over without hassle. The boy turned and pulled the Gaia Temporis out stealthily, hovering it near the artifact and murmuring "You can warp time and space, so maybe you could…"

He didn't even have to finish before the stone glowed bright and the artifact shrunk to a more manageable, pocket-fitting level. With a confused "Why can't you always be this responsive?" he tucked the stone away and turned around with the shrunken artifact in his palm. His right eye twitched and a slight but quietly unhinged chuckle came out as he said "T-There, that should do it!"

With a surprised gasp, Shina proclaimed "You had shrinking powers all along?!" before swiping the artifact from him and looking it over. She then poured some aura inside and a trail of it shot up off the planet. Alex folded his arms and said "N-Not exactly, I just manipulated the stone's atomic structure."

"… _Come to think about it, I could've used the Gaia Temporis to fix Shina's size way back when. SON OF A-"_

"Betcha things will be much easier now that I won't have to carry this in my hand all the time!" Shina tucked the stone into her pocket and let out a hearty giggle. Alex looked at her and said "At least some blue-skinned guy won't steal it now."

The two chuckled at that joke for a little bit before Alex interrupted the joy with a cough and said "A-Anyways, Shina, before we go there's something I'd like to…t-t-to tell you…" The boy gulped down some saliva as his mind raced in a fluttering beat. Feeling light-headed as she asked innocently "What is it?"

" _Come on Alex, it's not so difficult. You're not asking much here, and why would you care what she thinks? Focus, focus, it's easy!"_ After a brief pep talk he turned to her and said "L-L-Look…You were pretty honest with me earlier, so I want to do the same."

"You're right, I've been…maaaaaaybe a little too much of a jerk. In your own bizarre way you were trying to help me. Perhaps I couldn't see that because of how much you were goofing around. I honestly thought you were just one big clown."

Alex pointed at her and continued "If you're actually able to focus like you vowed to do, then we won't waste anymore time butting heads like we did."

Shina raised a hand to her chin and said "Geez Alex, did ya hit your head or something? You're acting different now." With a flustered stutter he replied "P-Psst, no! What are you even talking about, I'm the same I've always been!"

"Aaaaaw, so your kindness just came bubbling to the surface after all!" She grinned brightly, and frustratingly Alex proclaimed "I-I'm trying to say I want us to actually be friends this time, dummy!" without thinking. He embarrassingly clamped his mouth with his hands and looked at Shina.

She just looked back and said "Ok, sure!" without hesitation. _"N-No fanfare? Well alright, t-that really wasn't so bad…"_ He swiped his forehead and let out a sigh of relief, unaware of Shina clasping her hands and swaying her body around merrily.

" _He's opened up a little more! YES!"_ She twirled halfway around and stopped on a dime, only making a slight glance back before continuing to think _"…T-Then again, he also helped me out a bit too."_

Alex waved his right hand out and said "Alright alright, I think we've been on this world long enough." As Alex began to create a barrier of air around the two of them, Shina turned and said "I'm going to miss this place. It was weird, but it was fun…sort-of."

"Well hopefully next world's a bit more put together…" Alex took off from the planet's surface, quickly leaving the planet behind as Shina sat down and concentrated on the artifact to summon the aura trail for Alex to follow. She decided to lay back, unaware of Alex slowly turning back to glance at the aura coming from her pocket.

" _I-It was like I was a prisoner in my own body…"_

Cortex's words echoed, and Alex grit his teeth before looking ahead and whispering forebodingly "Just who the heck is following us? …And what do they want from this?"

" _A rather interesting inquiry to end this tale on, wouldn't you agree my friend?"_

"… _Yes, it is bothersome to know the answers before they do, isn't it? We've both known long before they were even born."_

" _The flaws of foresight and immortality, I suppose. And yet you are allowed to stand outside this cage and continue to have fun for another year before I enter the stage."_

" _Oh? Did I sound a bit jealous? Envy composes one-seventh of a man, after all, haha!"_

"… _Yes, yes, I suppose you have given those two enough of a warm-up. Your game shall become more dangerous from here on out, but remember…Breaking them dooms us both."_

"… _Your smiles are never reassuring, quite frankly. So next on the plate is 'THAT' world, isn't it? Interesting…Actually, if I can make a particular request to you, my friend, there's a fight I wish for you to set up…"_

 **CLASH OF THE ELEMENTS PART 4 EX STORY 2**

 **THE END!**

* * *

 **Author's Notes:  
**

And thus the second story is done and done. Overall, I think I liked how this turned out MUCH better than the Spyro story. Personally, a non-linear source material made for a much better flow in the grand scheme of things. I especially enjoyed that little original content with the Pirate Dimension, which I did because in Twinsanity they had a dimension like that scrapped from the final game, so with the freedom of Fanfiction I brought that idea back to life.

Not to say I didn't have some problems. It is a shame Crash can't really talk because it means there was only a few things I could do with him, though some could argue Cortex was the "protagonist" representing the Crash world this time. I also do wish I could've better stuck in the original content for my characters, but there was always going to be this type of interruption in one of the stories regardless of what I decided. I can assure you this will be the only time this'll happen though.

So next on the line for stories is the Guilty Gear story...Yeah that's definitely a leap in terms of mood, I agree, but it's a deliberate choice. I'll be spending the next month getting all my facts and shit in line so I'll be full, absolutely ready for the next few stories, soooo come back at the start of September for the third story, "The Xrd Impact".

Thanks again for reading, have a good day.


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